Alien Probes Would possibly Be Hiding in Plain Sight, Says Scientist

Alien probes might be hiding amongst us in plain sight as we seek for them within the flawed locations. 

This is the speculation of professor Alex Ellery of Carleton University who argues that if self-replicating alien probes have reached our photo voltaic system they is probably not within the type of alien craft or flashing lights however camouflaged as rocks from asteroids, lunar particles or comets. 

“I believe that extraterrestrial intelligence (in AI form) could be concealed under the lunar surface, in effect, ‘hibernating.’ They may periodically surface to observe our planet and its biological evolution. As that evolution becomes more interesting, their awakening periods may become more frequent but our species evolved very rapidly to become tool-using over the last 2 million years or so,” Ellery advised Newsweek. 

Self-replicating spacecraft or probes are sometimes called von Neumann probes, having been launched as an idea by mathematician and physicist John von Neumann within the Nineteen Forties. The thought is that these are machines able to mining sources, replicating and spreading by the galaxy over hundreds of thousands of years.

However, as a substitute of trying to find radio and synthetic indicators within the skies, Ellery suggests we should always divert our consideration nearer to dwelling, on the lookout for proof of technological exercise equivalent to uncommon isotope ratios or magnetic anomalies on the moon and different close by planets and celestial objects.

“The solar system is huge and mostly unexplored,” Ellery mentioned in a press release. “There could be probes everywhere—in craters on the moon, or lurking in the asteroid belt and kuiper belt [both regions in the solar system].”

He defined additional to Newsweek that he favors the moon as it’s “a rich source of easily-obtained aluminum,” a “highly multifunctional material” and possesses a “small gravity field which renders manufacturing operations easier than on asteroids.”

In his preprint paper—that means it has not but been formally peer-reviewed however builds on previous research—Ellery highlighted the significance of figuring out “what to look for and where” as our photo voltaic system exploration “consolidates into commercial industrialization.”

“After considering asteroid resources, we suggest that evidence of asteroidal processing will be difficult to discern from natural processes given the constraints imposed by self-replication. We further determine that the moon is an ideal base of manufacturing operations,” he mentioned.

Ellery prompt it’s attainable to construct nuclear reactors on the moon utilizing supplies discovered there, which may go away chemical indicators of previous reactor exercise.

“We further suggest that in anticipatory economic trade for resources, a self-replicating probe may have left artefacts buried with asteroidal resources on the moon. Such gifts would be detectable and accessible only once a threshold of technological sophistication has been achieved [to find and understand them]. An obvious gift in trade for the resources utilised would be a universal constructor,” he added.

Ellery acknowledged the argument that, given the boundaries of our exploration of our huge photo voltaic system, it’s unsurprising we haven’t but found proof of alien robotic probes, particularly on account of their sometimes small sizes.

“We have presented potential locations for targeted searches and admitted that technosignatures could be larger but hidden, though there may be widespread isotopic evidence of artificial nuclear power generation,” he mentioned. 

“Our search for such technosignatures will be side-effects of our own efforts to industrialize lunar and asteroid resources. The anomalous Chicxulub crater [one of the largest and best preserved craters on Earth] had been discovered by petroleum geologists decades before its significance was revealed by Alvarez et al. 

“For the moon and asteroids, we are forearmed. The quicker we get to it, the quicker we may discover the answer to one of the most important scientific and philosophical questions of our time.” 

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References

Ellery, A. (2025). Technosignatures of self-replicating probes within the photo voltaic system. arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.00082. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.00082
Ellery, A. (2022). Self-replicating probes are imminent – Implications for SETI. International Journal of Astrobiology, 21(4), 212–242.