Researchers from Edinburgh University have said 'self-replicating ' robotic space probes from alien civilizations could already have arrived in our solar system.
The probes, which mathematicians Duncan Forgan and Arwen Nicholson referred to in their paper 'Slingshot Dynamics for Self-Replicating Probes and the Effect on Exploration Timescales', could be so hitech that they're invisible to human beings, the Scotlandbased researchers said.
The two mathematicians analyzed the possibility that probes could travel through space in a study published in the Journal of Astrobiology.
The paper raises the question of whether alien races could have used the gravity of stars to "slingshot" probes in order to gain speed: a technique humans already use for probes, such as the Voyager. The Voyager space probe uses a 'slingshot' technique but uses planets rather than stars.
The researchers also analyzed how a fleet of probes could 'self-replicate' and build new versions of themselves from dust and gas while traveling through space. Forgan said: "The fact we haven't seen probes of this type makes it difficult to believe that probe-building civilizations have exist in the Milky Way."
The research chimes with that of Jacob Haqq and Misra who in 2011 suggested that alien objects could already exist in our solar system without us knowing รข€” because we haven't looked hard enough for them.
The new piece of research once again raises the 'Fermi Paradox'. The paradox, suggested by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael Hart, is the apparent contradiction between the high probability of the existence of alien civilizations and the lack of contact with such civilizations.
