A key issue is when such a probe might have been sent,
or a visitation may have taken place, because that will
affect the detectability of any traces. Studies of extra-solar
planets suggest that earthlike planets may be common in
the galaxy [12]. The galaxy is about 13 billion years old,
but the solar system formed only about 4.5 billion years
ago. If we restrict attention to carbon-based life, then the
probability for life to emerge will slowly rise as a function
of the availability of carbon and related elements. An
estimate of the age distribution of terrestrial planets has
been given by Lineweaver [13]. Of course, we have no idea
what the absolute probability is for life to arise on a
terrestrial-type planet once it exists. It could be very rare
[14,15], but for the purposes of this paper we shall adopt
the optimistic position of Davis and Lineweaver [16] that
the probability for abiogenesis it is not exceptionally low,
and that there are consequently many planets with life in
our galaxy (and others). In spite of the steady increase
over time of the relative probability for life to emerge,
there is no reason to rule out the possibility that planets
with life existed long before Earth formed, and that
planets with intelligent life and technological communities
existed, and have existed, over astronomical time
scales [17,1]. Thus there is no reason to suppose that an
alien probe would have been sent to the solar system, or
an alien visitation taken place, in the relatively recent past
(e.g. within the epoch of human habitation on Earth), as
opposed to the very far past. If the solar system were
visited, say, two billion years ago, it may be exceedingly
difficult to identify any traces of alien technology even on
a fairly large scale. If the time scale was, say, one hundred
million years, there is more likelihood of us finding traces,
but our best hope is if we are dealing with a time scale of
a few million years or less.