PHONE HOME Hyper-intelligent aliens ‘have already explored the galaxy and visited Earth’, scientists claim

The Milky Way may be full of alien civilisations, according to a new study.

Scientists have suggested that there could actually be life out there but we just don’t know about it yet because the extraterrestrials haven’t been to visit us for 10 million years.

A recent study published in The Astronomical Journal has suggested that intelligent alien life is out there but it’s just taking its time to explore the galaxy.

The work was created in response to a question known as the Fermi Paradox that asks why humans haven’t been able to detect signs of aliens yet.

The study’s lead author Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback told Business Insider: “If you don’t account for motion of stars when you try to solve this problem, you’re basically left with one of two solutions.

“Either nobody leaves their planet, or we are in fact the only technological civilisation in the galaxy.”

The researchers theory revolves around the fact that stars and their planets orbit the centre of the galaxy at different speeds and in different directions.

As this happens the stars and planets occasionally pass each other so the scientists think that aliens could be travelling in destinations that move closer to them.

This kind of travelling would take civilisations longer to spread across stars than previously thought.

Taking this into account, the researchers think that aliens may not have reached us yet or if they did they might have visited Earth long before humans evolved.

They also said that other studies have not properly taken into account how our galaxy moves.

If aliens have to wait long enough until the closest habitable star system moves near them to travel then a civilisation may die out before they visit it.

Carroll-Nellenback told Business Insider: “If long enough is a billion years, well then that’s one solution to the Fermi paradox.

“Habitable worlds are so rare that you have to wait longer than any civilisation is expected to last before another one comes in range.”

This suggests that alien visits could just be skipping entire civilisations.

Models made during the study helped the researchers to conclude that the Milky Way could be full of inhabited star systems that we don’t know about.

The study authors also suggested that no traces may have been left by aliens if they visited billions of years ago.

They also considered the possibility that the extraterrestrials might not want to visit a planet that already has life.