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Possible evidence for an intelligent alien civilisation around a distant star.
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The star is called KIC 8462852, and it’s one of more than a hundred thousand stars that was observed by NASA’s Kepler mission. Kepler stared at these stars, looking for dips in their brightness. These very slight dimmings can be due to many factors, but one is if the star has planets, and one (or more) of them orbits the star in such a way that it passes directly in front of the star as seen from Earth. If it does—what we call a transit—we see a tiny diminution of starlight, usually by less than a percent. Thousands of exoplanets have been found this way. Usually the planet is on a short orbit, so the dip we see is periodic, repeating every few days, weeks, or months, depending on the size of the planet’s orbit. KIC 8462852 is a star somewhat more massive, hotter, and brighter than the Sun. It’s about 1,500 light-years away, a decent distance, so it’s too faint to see with the naked eye. The Kepler data for the star are pretty bizarre: There are dips in the light, but they aren’t periodic. They can be very deep; one dropped the amount of starlight by 15 percent, and another by a whopping 22 percent! Straight away, we know we’re not dealing with a planet here. Even a Jupiter-sized planet only blocks roughly 1 percent of this kind of star’s light, and that’s about as big as a planet gets. It can’t be due to a star, either; we’d see it if it were. And the lack of a regular, repeating signal belies both of these as well. Whatever is blocking the star is big, though, up to half the width of the star itself! |
One idea is that an alien civilisation may have build huge energy collectors, solar panel type things.
Last edited by Blobbenstein; 10-17-2015 at 04:30 PM.
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Oryzatarian
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: USDA z7a
Posts: 1,359
I prefer to think theres a world where disco never died and the civilization has built a massive quantum wave nuclear fusion inhibitor to turn their star into a disco ball.
Which begs the question, are they oscillating their moons gravity so it acts upon their atmosphere as a giant speaker?
Which begs the question, are they oscillating their moons gravity so it acts upon their atmosphere as a giant speaker?
Impeach the gangster
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 10,052
The variety in the disturbances of the star's brightness could be caused by a range of factors. Those very large dimmings could be the result of something not related at all to the star itself, for example, debris in space, much closer to earth, drifting between KIC 8462852 and Kepler, something even like small rocks orbiting our own sun. The most striking thing is, according to the article, this is the only observed star, where this has been reported. Could just be a coincidence.
Dyson's ideas are interesting, but seem implausible. For one thing, from where could a civilization procure such large amounts of raw materials to build such huge structures? Look at our own solar system: excluding the sun, there isn't enough mass contained in all our planets to construct a Dyson's Sphere, or even part of one. The material would have to be imported from other solar systems. Doesn't seem too practical, but I suppose anything's possible....
BTW, I saw that episode of Star Trek: TNG with the Dyson's Sphere. It's the one with Scotty. "I was flying starships when your grandfather was in diapers!"
Dyson's ideas are interesting, but seem implausible. For one thing, from where could a civilization procure such large amounts of raw materials to build such huge structures? Look at our own solar system: excluding the sun, there isn't enough mass contained in all our planets to construct a Dyson's Sphere, or even part of one. The material would have to be imported from other solar systems. Doesn't seem too practical, but I suppose anything's possible....
BTW, I saw that episode of Star Trek: TNG with the Dyson's Sphere. It's the one with Scotty. "I was flying starships when your grandfather was in diapers!"
"There is more wisdom in the song of a bird, than in the speech of a philosopher...." -Oahspe
"The thing is, you cannot judge a race. Any man who judges by the group is a pea-wit. You take men one at a time." -Buster Kilrain, The Killer Angels -Michael Shaara
"Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist." -Billy Wilder
Last edited by Capstan; 10-17-2015 at 06:57 PM.
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Join Date: Aug 2006
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For material there would also be a kind or Oort belt, in the outer system,and the dismantling of any planets too big to live on.
A structure that collected energy and blocked out the star might be very thin anyway.
A structure that collected energy and blocked out the star might be very thin anyway.
Last edited by Blobbenstein; 10-17-2015 at 07:04 PM.
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: UK
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Just did some sums..If Jupiter were turned into a shell of material around the Sun at Earth distance from the Sun, then the shell would be 4meters thick.
Not sure how much of Jupiter could be used in constructing a shell...In one of Arthur C Clarke's books the story had Jupiter having a diamond core....if you could use that carbon to make some sort of (maybe diamond) honeycomb structure then maybe you could build a shell around the Sun...and somehow collect the energy.
If the OP star has aliens building structures around the star, they have only build smaller structures anyway.
Not sure how much of Jupiter could be used in constructing a shell...In one of Arthur C Clarke's books the story had Jupiter having a diamond core....if you could use that carbon to make some sort of (maybe diamond) honeycomb structure then maybe you could build a shell around the Sun...and somehow collect the energy.
If the OP star has aliens building structures around the star, they have only build smaller structures anyway.
Beginner
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Colorado
Posts: 159
lol. i'm sure we'll either destroy them or enslave them.
Dog, guts and guns..
Veggie Regular
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 727
Maybe by the time we can actually get to them we will be better that way.
Impeach the gangster
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 10,052
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Originally Posted by odizzido
Maybe by the time we can actually get to them we will be better that way.
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"There is more wisdom in the song of a bird, than in the speech of a philosopher...." -Oahspe
"The thing is, you cannot judge a race. Any man who judges by the group is a pea-wit. You take men one at a time." -Buster Kilrain, The Killer Angels -Michael Shaara
"Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist." -Billy Wilder
Not such a Beginner ;)
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 8,394
Hopefully they look more like insects than they do cows, so people won't want to eat them.
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The search for signs of life in a mysterious star system hypothesized to potentially harbor an "alien megastructure" is now underway.
Astronomers have begun using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA), a system of radio dishes about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco, to hunt for signals coming from the vicinity of KIC 8462852, a star that lies 1,500 light-years from Earth. |
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