Too far

Most Americans have limited knowledge of astronomy so when the news reports the possibility of alien visitor it seems possible. Polls show that most people would like there to be visitors from some other part of the universe but unless there are laws of physics that have not been discovered, it is not likely. A scientist will always be open to yet discovered possibilities but some things are so close to impossible that it might be considered waste of time to investigate. While radio contact from space is definitely possible, the contact with a life form is another story. The big problem is distance which most people do not comprehend. Voyager One has been traveling 49 years at 36,000 mph and is now 16 billion miles from earth. That is 320 million miles per year. At this speed it will take 75,000 years to reach the nearest star.