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NASA Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) shows an area known as the W3 and W5 star-forming regions within the Milky Way Galaxy.
NASA Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) shows an area known as the W3 and W5 star-forming regions within the Milky Way Galaxy. NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin via AP
An image from the European Southern Observatory shows a rich region of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), that includes huge numbers of stars as well as several regions of star formation.
An image from the European Southern Observatory shows a rich region of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), that includes huge numbers of stars as well as several regions of star formation. EPA/ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Handout
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The European Space Agency’s all-sky view of the Milky Way Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars.
The European Space Agency's all-sky view of the Milky Way Galaxy and neighbouring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars. EPA/ESA/Gaia/DPAC/Handout
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Any aliens in our galaxy have already likely annihilated themselves — the victims of too much progress, a new scientific study says.

Researchers with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology have surmised that since past studies show a civilization’s technological advances “will inevitably lead to complete destruction and biological degeneration,’’ any intelligent life previously in the Milky Way has already likely killed itself off.

“[I]f intelligent life is likely to destroy themselves, it is not surprising that there is little or no intelligent life elsewhere,” the researchers said in a paper posted online earlier this month.

The scientists also theorized that humans are late to the party because peak conditions for life to develop likely occurred about 8 billion years after the galaxy formed — and we emerged around 13.5 billion years after the Milky Way came about, according to the website Live Science.

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