Making first contact with intelligent alien life is probably on the top of any astronomer's wish list.
In fact meeting extra terrestrials for the first time is probably pretty high on anyone's list.
What we often forget though is that not every alien civilisation is going to want to play nice, and so in our efforts to reach out, the messaging has to be flawless.
Speaking to Forbes, Douglas Vakoch, President of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) International warned that it's probably highly likely that intelligent and advanced alien civilizations already know we're here, both hostile and peaceful.
“It’s too late to conceal ourselves in the universe, so we should decide how we want to represent ourselves,”
At present, one of the major concerns around how we're doing that is focused around our love of entertainment.
If an advanced civilisation has picked up a signal from us, the likelihood is that it's more to do with what we're watching on a Saturday night than our deep understanding of our place in the universe.
To correct this METI is reportedly planning to reassess the type of message we send out into the cosmos. Instead it will focus on redefining how we package the information we send out.
At the other end of the spectrum is SETI's UK-based attempt at making contact.
In an interview with Forbes, SETI advocate Joao Pedro Magalhaes explains that we must assume aliens already have some knowledge of us, it's now a case of simply making sure they know we're ready to learn more.
This is by no means the first instance where scientists have suggested we're not alone in the universe.
Scientists at the University of Rochester have presented a groundbreaking new approach which flips the focus of attention onto the likelihood that we are alone.
“Rather than asking how many civilisations may exist now, we ask ‘Are we the only technological species that has ever arisen?” explains coauthor Woodruff Sullivan from the University of Washington.
The new formula should give considerable hope to those who wonder if humanity is indeed the only civilisation in the universe because it not only suggests that there are advanced alien races out there but that the likliehood is that many have already been and gone long before we evolved.