In 2029, we will know if aliens can hear humanity. If there are indeed intelligent life forms in space, somewhere else in the infinite Universe, one of them may be able to intercept the radio signals that humans use to communicate with space probes that continue their journeys through the cosmos.
And if this has already happened, we have to wait a little longer to receive a response signal.
Since 1972, NASA has created a vast network of radio communication stations called the Deep Space Network (DSN), to send signals beyond the solar system and receive responses from our probes in space.
There are the Voyager 1 and 2 probes that have already crossed the boundaries of our star system, Pioneer 10, 11 and New Horizons.
To understand how far they are on their interstellar journeys, the 3D star catalog created by the Gaia mission was used, specifically about 330 thousand stars near the Sun, within a distance that is equivalent to 20 million times greater than that between the Earth and the Sun.
So far, the conclusion is that DSN signals have reached at least four stars. If these have habitable planets nearby, their responses should reach us by 2029.
Whereas if the signals are produced by aliens from other star systems, further away than that, they could reach Earth in 2031 and 2033.