By Sarah Griffiths for MailOnline and Ellie Zolfagharifard For Dailymail.com
Published: 05:47 EST, 21 September 2015 | Updated: 06:27 EST, 21 September 2015
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Many of us believe in aliens and that they may be trying to communicate across the universe.
But what if we are unable to decode their messages?
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden told Neil deGrasse Tyson he thinks aliens encrypt their communications and we dont have the ability to detect or decode them.
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden (stock image) says aliens could be trying to contact us on Earth, but we may never detect them because their messages are likely encrypted so we unable to spot them
Snowden was a guest on the astrophysicists StarTalk podcast and spoke via video link from Moscow.
He said: If you look at encrypted communication, if they are properly encrypted, there is no real way to tell that they are encrypted.
Snowden explained that if aliens exist and they are intelligent, they will already be encrypting their communications, meaning humans may miss out on detecting them, let alone decoding their content
Snowden said:When we think about everything we're hearing through our satellites (stock image) and everything that they're hearing from our civilisation ... all of their communications are encrypted by default so what we are hearing ... is indistinguishable to us from cosmic microwave background radiation
You can't distinguish a properly encrypted communication from random behaviour.
Snowden was a guest on Neil deGrasse Tyson's StarTalk podcast and spoke via video link from Moscow. A file image of the astrophysicist is shown
He explained that if aliens exist and they are intelligent, they will already be encrypting their communications, but this means, if you have an alien civilisation trying to listen for other civilisations, or our civilisation trying to listen to other aliens, there's only one small period in the development of their society when all of their communications will be set at the most primitive and unprotected means.
He pointed out that perfectly encrypted messages wouldnt be detected by a security agency looking for such communications, and would instead seem like background noise.
Therefore aliens may be communicating but humans are deaf to any messages being broadcast.
When we think about everything we're hearing through our satellites and everything that they're hearing from our civilisation - if there are indeed aliens out there - all of their communications are encrypted by default so what we are hearing that's actually an alien television show or a phone call or a message between their planet and their own GPS constellation (or whatever it happens to be), is indistinguishable to us from cosmic microwave background radiation, he said.
Tyson said: You're assuming they [aliens] have the same security issues that we have here on Earth, to which Snowden replied: Maybe they're a little more enlightened'.
Snowden is not the only person who believes aliens may be trying to make contact with us, but we are unable to hear them.
Dr Nathalie Cabro (pictured right), who is leading the hunt for alien life at the Seti Institute has previously said we could be oblivious to their messages from aliens, because humanity is not yet able to pick up the signals. Pictured on the left is the Parkes Radio Telescope that has picked up strange radio bursts from space
Dr Nathalie Cabrol, who is leading the hunt for alien life at the Seti Institute in California, told MailOnline that while in our lifetime we'll find simple alien organisms close to Earth and a replica of our planet in another galaxy, detecting intelligent life may not be as easy because of our limited view of the universe.
'If there is a civilisation out there that is only 1,000 years older than we are, who knows what type of technology, or what type of process, theyve put into communicating with others,' she said.
'Were just scratching the surface here. Were looking at the universe from our own standpoint.
'We tend to ask questions in the way we do. But what kind of thought process an alien civilisation may have, we really dont know.'
Dr Nathalie Cabrol was recently appointed as the lead for the Seti Institute multidisciplinary research programmes into the search for life beyond Earth. She currently heads the Institutes Carl Sagan Centre for the Study of Life in the Universe and is confident we will detect alien organisms close to Earth in our lifetime
In their hunt for alien life, astronomers have so far focused on looking for Earth-like planets around smaller, cooler suns.
But these exoplanets - despite having a chance of holding water - are believed to be locked in a rotation around their sun which causes only one side of their surface face the star.
Now astronomers claim that such exoplanets actually rotate around their stars, and spin at such a speed that they exhibit a day-night cycle similar to Earth increasing the chance of finding alien life.
Planets with potential oceans could have a climate that is much more similar to Earth's than previously expected,' said Jrmy Leconte, a postdoctoral fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto.
'If we are correct, there is no permanent, cold night side on exoplanets causing water to remain trapped in a gigantic ice sheet,' he said.
'Whether this new understanding of exoplanets' climate increases the ability of these planets to develop life remains an open question.'
Currently, the search for ET is based on picking up optical and radio signals.
For instance, earlier this year, scientists picked up a series of mysterious pulsing signals coming from outside our solar system.
Known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), just 10 of these signals have been discovered to date.
Dr Cabrol says searching for radio signals is just one of the ways we may be able to pick up alien life.
'We are hoping that ET has done the same thing as us, but there are other ways,' she said.
'Some people have talked about ET technology, sending vessels or robots in space.
'We have to rely a bit on our imagination right now to figure out what ET will be doing, and not being afraid to develop new research avenues as well.'
One of the ways we may be able to spot alien civilisations is through the destruction of their own planet, she says.
'Seti is, at this moment in time, about radio astronomy, and optical. But its also about what a civilisation does to its environment as it grows older.
'We are somewhat advanced, but we are a teenage civilisation. We are playing with toys and technologies but we dont know the rules very well yet.
Her views echo that of former astronaut, John Grunsfeld, who earlier this year said if aliens are out there, they already know we exist.
He said an advanced alien civilisation may spot humans from afar from the changes we've made to Earth's environment.
Former astronaut, John Grunsfeld (pictured), says that an advanced alien civilisation may spot humans from afar from the changes we've made to Earth's environment. 'We put atmospheric signatures that guarantee someone with a large telescope 20 light years away could detect us,' he claims
'We put atmospheric signatures that guarantee someone with a large telescope 20 light years away could detect us,' said Grunsfeld at the Astrobiology Science Conference in Chicago.
'If there is life out there, intelligent life, they'll know we're here.'
In April, Nasa's chief scientist Ellen Stofan said we could find evidence of extraterrestrial life in 20 to 30 years.
'We know where to look, we know how to look, and in most cases we have the technology.'
Jeffery Newmark, interim director of heliophysics at the agency, added: 'It's definitely not an if, it's a when.'
Stofan added: 'We are not talking about little green men.We are talking about little microbes.'
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NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says aliens could be ...
