The reason why human beings have not detected signs of extraterrestrial intelligence is a doubt that for years has left humanity with more questions than answers; However, a study published in August 2019, postulates that in fact this type of life could have visited the Earth, but not enough time for them to be detected.
According to research published in The Astronomical Journal, aliens would be taking advantage of the movement of star systems to jump from one place to another, travelers from other places in the galaxy could be taking their time to explore the galaxy.
The study responds to the “Fermi Paradox” that questions the detection of intelligence from other places in the universe with the question: “Where are all?”.
The authors of the study suggest that these beings could be strategic to know the different places of the universe waiting for the stars to approach each other to jump from one to another.
“If you do not take into account the movement of the stars when you try to solve this problem, you basically have one of two solutions (…) or nobody leaves your planet, or in fact we are the only technological civilization in the galaxy,” he said in an interview with, according to Business Insider, the computer scientist and lead author of the study, Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback.
This is because the stars and planets that orbit within a galaxy have different paths and speeds. Occasionally they cross and they would wait for their destinies to approach each other.
Erico Fermi, was a physicist who wondered for the first time because despite the fact that humanity had been searching for extraterrestrial life for decades, he had not found it yet.
He proposed that the galaxy should have been invaded by intelligent and technologically advanced beings throughout the millions of years of existence of the universe , but that human beings had not yet detected its existence.
On the other hand, Fermi also questioned the viability of travel between stars, but always linked to the doubt about the existence of life outside the Earth.
Later in 1975, astrophysicist Michael Hart also explored this issue and came to the conclusion that there were no other civilizations in the galaxy because the millions of years that preceded humanity were enough time for intelligent life to colonize the Milky Way.
From different angles, an attempt has been made to answer the Fermi paradox. Some studies have valued the theory that extraterrestrial life forms are found in the oceans, below the earth’s surface.
Others say that societies can disappear because of their lack of sustainability before being able to make interstellar trips. There is even a “zoological hypothesis” that states that extraterrestrial societies have decided not to establish contact with humans for protection reasons.
A 2018 study from the University of Oxford noted that there was a 2 to 5 chance that we are alone in our galaxy and a 1 in 3 chance that we are the only living beings in the entire universe. But the authors of this latest study point out that such research did not consider our galaxy, so for two civilizations to meet they would have to wait for the orbital trajectory of one to coincide with that of another habitable star system.
The researchers led by Carroll-Nellenback used numerical models to simulate the propagation that an extraterrestrial civilization could have had throughout the galaxy even considering the range and speed of its interstellar probes.
On the other hand, the research team said that “we try to reach a model that involves the least amount of assumptions about sociology that we could,” since in fact the predictions and data were made taking into account human behavior.
Another of Michael Hart’s arguments to dismiss the theory that there were extraterrestrial civilizations was that there was no record of his visit; However, the researchers responded that it is possible that their visits are not recorded as such by the historical moment they came.
They point out that they may also have been close to the earth, but have no interest in visiting an inhabited planet so they preferred to stay out. The publication calls this event “the Aurora effect”, a name based on the novel “Aurora” by Kim Stanley Robins.
Source: Infobae
