With cult classics like Star Wars and Space Jam, it’s safe to say that we Earthlings have long been interested in making contact with our extraterrestrial neighbors. But new research says we probably have about 1,500 years to go until that happens.

“We haven’t heard from aliens yet, as space is a big place – ,” study author and Cornell student Evan Solomonides said in a release. Alongside his co-author, Cornell’s Tisch Distinguished University Professor of Astronomy Yervant Terzian, Solomonides presented the study “A Probabilistic Analysis of the Fermi Paradox” at the American Astronomical Society’s meeting on June 16.

In their research, Solomonides and Terzian combined the Fermi Paradox and the mediocrity principle to determine that .

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The Fermi Paradox, named after Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, asks the question that’s puzzled astronomers and sky enthusiasts for years: with billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy, why haven’t we come across any alien life forms yet?

As a possible response, Renaissance mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus’ mediocrity principle suggests “ about the evolution of our solar system, the Earth, any one nation or humans."Because of this, aliens aren’t likely to come across us for a while, according to the study.

"It is actually unlikely that the Earth would have been reached by extraterrestrial communication at this point," wrote the researchers. "We predict that under 1 percent of the galaxy has been reached at all thus far, and we do not anticipate to be reached until approximately half of the stars/planets have been reached. We offer a prediction that we should not expect this until at least 1,500 years in the future."

Earth’s broadcast signals have reached every star within about 80 light-years of the sun: that’s about 8,531 stars and 3,555 Earth-like planets. Even with this wide reach, it’s still not enough to catch the attention of our outer space neighbors.

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“For aliens receiving these transmissions, they would likely be indecipherable as the extraterrestrials would need to decode light waves into sounds, then parse 3,000 human languages to grasp the message,” said Solomonides.

“Even our mundane, typical spiral galaxy – not exceptionally large compared to other galaxies – is vast beyond imagination,” he added. “Those numbers are what make the Fermi Paradox so counterintuitive. We have reached so many stars and planets, surely we should have reached somebody by now, and in turn been reached … this demonstrates why we appear to be alone.”

Though their findings have given them a rough estimate of when we can expect to hear from our intergalactic friends, the researchers assert that this time frame isn’t set in stone.

“This is not to say that we must be reached by then or else we are, in fact, alone,” said Solomonides. “We simply claim that it is somewhat unlikely that we will not hear anything before that time.”

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