Speaker
Description
The Fermi Paradox underscores the lack of evidence for advanced extraterrestrial life despite the Galaxy’s age and scale. While interstellar distances are often seen as barriers to communication and migration, Galactic rotation could shorten travel times and enable expansion. Yet most models overlook destructive astrophysical hazards. Hazardous astrophysical events—asteroid impacts, supernovae (SNe), and giant molecular cloud (GMC) encounters—may extinguish advanced civilizations before colonization spreads. We simulate Galactic-scale migration of advanced civilizations with these hazards included: asteroid impacts are probabilistic, while SNe and GMCs impose extinction within defined radii. In hazard-free cases, up to 72% of stars at the Solar radius (8.2 kpc) are colonized. With hazards, colonization collapses entirely within 830 Myr. These results suggest astrophysical hazards may provide a physical resolution to the Fermi Paradox.