A recent study analyzes whether these civilizations might be using quantum communication technologies beyond our own, which could explain why we don’t ‘hear’ them. Although interstellar quantum communication is possible, the technology to detect such communications is still far from our reach. In 1950, Enrico Fermi asked the question that all of us have likely pondered at some point in our lives: Where are all of the aliens? “It’s interesting that our galaxy (and the sea of cosmic background radiation in which it’s embedded) ‘does’ permit interstellar quantum communication in certain frequency bands,” Boyle told Phys.org back in September. For example, Boyle calculated that interstellar quantum communication would need to use wavelengths of at least 26.5 centimeters in order to avoid quantum depolarization due to the cosmic microwave background (CMB).