A new study suggests it is more energy-efficient to communicate across interstellar space by sending physical material than beams of electromagnetic radiation.

Beams of radiation are cone-shaped and grow in size as they travel outward, meaning the great majority of their energy is wasted.

A far more energy-efficient — although slower — way of communicating over great interstellar distances is to send a physical object, which can hold more information and journey farther than radio waves.

The researchers speculate that there may be extraterrestrial packages already here in our planetary backyard, perhaps in the vicinity of Jupiter, the sun, or the moon — or maybe even here on Earth in the form of organic material embedded in an asteroid.