Calay News
Pentagon UFO unit director Sean Kirkpatrick and theoretical physicist Avi Loeb have written a paper proposing the possibility that extraterrestrial craft are flying through our solar system and sending probes to Earth. The researchers argue that this extraterrestrial equipment could arrive in two forms: as space junk, similar to the way our own interstellar probes will appear in a billion years, or as autonomous devices equipped with artificial intelligence.
Scientists explain that any functional device embedded in Earth’s atmosphere is not likely to carry biological entities, as these would not survive the long journey through interstellar space and its harsh conditions. It is possible that extraterrestrials have long ago sent a mothership across the galaxy with the ability to launch its own smaller probes to visit interesting planets it passes by.
Kirkpatrick and Loeb hypothesize that “an artificial interstellar object may be a parent spacecraft that releases many small probes during its near-Earth passage, an operational construct not unlike NASA’s missions. These ‘dandelion seeds’ could be separated from the parent spacecraft by the sun’s tidal gravitational force or by a maneuvering capability.”
Scientists explain that these tiny probes would reach Earth or other planets in the solar system for exploration. Astronomers would not be able to notice the spray from mini-probes because they do not reflect enough sunlight for existing telescopes to notice it. Within close range of a star, extraterrestrial technology probes could use starlight to charge their batteries and use liquid water as fuel.
In the article, the researchers believe that the overall purpose of the trip would be for the probes to propagate their senders’ project. The raw materials on the planet’s surface could also be used by them as nutrients for self-replication or simply for scientific exploration. However, it is important to note that, given the time scales associated with the propulsion scheme discussed here, it is not reasonable to assert that the intent of any such probe launched in the distant past would have anything to do with the human species. The objective would be scientific and exploratory in nature, similar to NASA missions.
