Astronomers have searched much of the sky with some level of sensitivity and have not detected any extraterrestrial civilization.

Judge the factual claim that astronomers have surveyed much of the sky at some sensitivity and detected no extraterrestrial civilization. True if, as of 2002, SETI and related surveys had covered a substantial fraction of the sky at some power level with no confirmed detection. Mostly true if broadly correct with minor overstatement of coverage. Mostly false if coverage was far more limited than implied. False if a detection had been confirmed or the characterization is wrong.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Ask Dr. SETI: How Much of the Sky Have You Covered? The SETI League, Inc. · 28 December 2002

   “Although the world's collective SETI programs have by now probably looked in most of the possible directions at some frequency for some period of time, we've so far only looked reliably out to a distance of perhaps 200 light years.”

2. E2 Ask Dr. SETI: How Much of the Sky Have You Covered? The SETI League, Inc. · 28 December 2002

   “One such instrument (and there are only handful of them in the world) can see one part in a million of the sky.”

3. E3 Ask Dr. SETI: How Much of the Sky Have You Covered? The SETI League, Inc. · 28 December 2002

   “So in terms of the volume of interstellar space, we've seen less than one fifteen millionth of our own Milky Way galaxy.”

4. E4 Ask Dr. SETI: How Much of the Sky Have You Covered? The SETI League, Inc. · 28 December 2002

   “So the official SETI League answer is not expressed in percentages. We can't count that low.”

The evidence says SETI programs had probably looked in most directions at some frequency [E1], but that they had seen less than one fifteen-millionth of the galaxy's volume [E3]. None of the quoted passages says whether any extraterrestrial civilization had been detected, so the evidence does not settle the claim under the criteria.