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[Skinpop]

Maybe this is where the 'WOW' signal came from?

A Dyson sphere just seems too implausible, the amount materials required to cover even 5% of the star would be staggering

with automation/self replicating robot tech we could do the same here. just use mercury as material. it's not really a problem if there are sufficient planets/moons/rocks and so on orbiting the star. probably wouldn't take more than a few decades once you get the first machines/factories on ground.

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

earth would finally have a common threat

it already does...

Spoiler

humanity

 

[Quazar]

There was a recent update by SETI that snuck a little nugget of information in update they made earlier this week. They sneakily added in update of a different telescope scanning star, which follows protocol if they find something with ATA or whatever they detected signal with. Who knows.

We do know that they've already written paper for whatever journal, so we're just waiting for the print at this point.

 

[Laughing Banana]

if aliens had the tech and knowledge to build those large structures a long time ago, why were they not able to see us while we can see them or at least know of this star's existence ?

What makes you think they can't see us?

Maybe the can see us, but they just don't care? Or deem us as insignificant?

 

[Pestilence11]

At the very least, it is more likely than inventing a form of FTL communication. People bring that up casually as a possibility, but I don't think people realize exactly why most physicists consider c to be the hard speed limit for the transmission of information. The simple answer is that FTL communication would immediately result in the violation of causality. If you were to try to send out a message at superluminal speeds, you could easily receive the response to that message before you even finish composing the message in the first place. That is, it is possible to receive a reply to a message you never wrote. FTL communication itself is the only prerequisite to this paradox. Thus, FTL communication breaks causality, and is a form of time travel.

Harnessing quantum nonlocality somehow? I'm very much an amateur in the subject.

 

[akira28]

it already does...

Spoiler

humanity

ok then. someone else to blame.

but seriously, I don't like the "we'll band together to fight the alien threat" idea that much either. alien threats will wipe us off the fucking map like flushing a fancy Japanese toilet.

 

[mAcOdIn]

I honestly don't believe anyone need worry(or dream) about what would happen if we discovered aliens. I find it hard to believe that we could ever definitively find aliens with our current technology. I figure the best they could do is say they found stuff that they don't believe to be from known naturally occurring phenomenon and even if that's what they come out and say it's not proof of aliens and the kind of people who are most likely to freak out over aliens probably wouldn't buy such speculative claims either. people don't even buy more hard science like global warming they're not going to buy aliens unless a ufo lands on their front lawn.

 

[Sapiens]

This came up at a family dinner table recently. Most waived it off as nonsense as the premise of life existing anywhere else in the universe was seen as ludicrous. I doubt most people will care if it is every confirmed to be authentic.

 

[Crispy75]

This came up at a family dinner table recently. Most waived it off as nonsense as the premise of life existing anywhere else in the universe was seen as ludicrous. I doubt most people will care if it is every confirmed to be authentic.

If people can wave off global warming and evolution, life on other planets won't even cause a flutter.

EDIT: Read two posts before your own before replying, Crispy

 

[Slayer-33]

This came up at a family dinner table recently. Most waived it off as nonsense as the premise of life existing anywhere else in the universe was seen as ludicrous. I doubt most people will care if it is every confirmed to be authentic.

LOL

 

[Ovid]

I have to admit that if they found an intelligent alien species that can possibly manipulate the power of a star I would be scared.

 

[frey]

This came up at a family dinner table recently. Most waived it off as nonsense as the premise of life existing anywhere else in the universe was seen as ludicrous. I doubt most people will care if it is every confirmed to be authentic.

I've been rustled

 

[gutshot]

Don't think this was posted yet. At the next dimming event, astronomers should be able to determine whether it is caused by dust/debris or a solid object.

"As long as one of those events occurs again, we should be able to catch it in the act, and then we'll definitely be able to figure out what we're seeing," said Jason Wright, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University.

"The simplest measurements we can take — just looking in different wavelengths [of light] — should rule out, or suggest, alien megastructures right away," Wright told Space.com.

KIC 8462852 is a large star that lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth. The dimming events, which were observed by NASA's Kepler space telescope between 2009 and 2013, seem too substantial to be caused by an orbiting planet, many astronomers say.

Another plausible explanation — a planet-forming disk — doesn't seem to make sense, either, because KIC 8462852 appears to be a mature star whose planets (if it has any) have already formed.

So scientists are entertaining a number of other ideas, hypothesizing that the dimming might be caused by a swarm of exocomets or perhaps even some type of orbiting alien megastructure. This latter possibility is unlikely, researchers stress, but it's still worth checking out. Indeed, astronomers have aimed radio telescopes at KIC 8462852 to search for signals that may have been generated by intelligent aliens.

And follow-up is proceeding on other fronts as well. A number of optical telescopes are watching the star, waiting for another multiday dimming event to take place. Once such an event begins, large scopes outfitted with spectrographs will swing into action, studying and monitoring the various wavelengths of light emanating from KIC 8462852, Wright said.

"That'll tell us what that material is that the starlight is being filtered through," he said. "It'll tell us if maybe we're looking at ordinary astrophysical dust; it'll tell us if we're looking at gas."

"If we see any color dependence in the dimming — if it gets dimmer in the ultraviolet than it does in the infrared, for instance — then that would rule out that whatever we're looking at is a solid object," Wright added.

http://www.space.com/30948-dimming-star-alien-megastructure-mystery.html

 

[Tesseract]

soon, soon.

 

[maquiladora]

Don't think this was posted yet. At the next dimming event, astronomers should be able to determine whether it is caused by dust/debris or a solid object.

For what it's worth, someone posted this today on physicsforums.

Apparently some high resolution spectrography has been carried out and no excess of dust was uncovered. This could just be the result of any dimming bodies being absent at the time.

 

[gutshot]

For what it's worth, someone posted this today on physicsforums.

I wonder what the chances of it being an alien structure become if astronomers determine that it is a solid object? It has to be pretty high at that point since I don't think anything natural of that size would be so irregularly shaped.

Exciting stuff.

 

[jamieson87]

Don't think this was posted yet. At the next dimming event, astronomers should be able to determine whether it is caused by dust/debris or a solid object.



http://www.space.com/30948-dimming-star-alien-megastructure-mystery.html

Reading this gets me increasingly excited.

When is the next dimming event? Do we know?

 

[cyberheater]

This came up at a family dinner table recently. Most waived it off as nonsense as the premise of life existing anywhere else in the universe was seen as ludicrous. I doubt most people will care if it is every confirmed to be authentic.

We talk openly about this stuff all the time. It's a fascinating subject.

 

[Flo_Evans]

I find the idea of a dyson sphere to be kind of stupid.

Lets assume most life in the universe is hostile and places its own survival above other life.

So you build this huge thing that broadcasts your location and relative tech level.

But then again maybe they are fully mobile so by the time we see them setup, they are already at the next star.

Would be crazy if all we could ever find is traces of activity but never actually observe who or what is building it.

Even crazier, we could of made it, earth could of just been seeded from this civilization.

I'm just not sure a race advanced enough to harness a stars energy would need or want to.

We are already trending towards efficiency as solutions to energy problems not MOAR POWER. I guess it depends on the goal of the species. Exploration/colonization or just existing?

 

[Alexlf]

I find the idea of a dyson sphere to be kind of stupid.

Lets assume most life in the universe is hostile and places its own survival above other life.

So you build this huge thing that broadcasts your location and relative tech level.

But then again maybe they are fully mobile so by the time we see them setup, they are already at the next star.

Would be crazy if all we could ever find is traces of activity but never actually observe who or what is building it.

Even crazier, we could of made it, earth could of just been seeded from this civilization.

I'm just not sure a race advanced enough to harness a stars energy would need or want to.

We are already trending towards efficiency as solutions to energy problems not MOAR POWER. I guess it depends on the goal of the species. Exploration/colonization or just existing?

My bet would be that light speed is simply an insurmountable obstacle. Life's out there, but because of the timescales it takes to travel anywhere extra-solar exploration with crafts becomes largely futile. A dyson sphere like construct quickly becomes an obvious set-up when your resources are limited to few planets.

EDIT: Plus you don't have to worry about other species "invading" you if you assume they reach a similar conclusion... then again, said alien species doesn't necessarily have a concept/fear of "invaders".

 

[maquiladora]

I wonder what the chances of it being an alien structure become if astronomers determine that it is a solid object? It has to be pretty high at that point since I don't think anything natural of that size would be so irregularly shaped.

Exciting stuff.

I think in that case the chances of it being something in the universe that we haven't yet discovered would be very high, but the alien structure theory still being a remote possibility.

Rather than being something artificial, it may turn out to be something that looks artificial but is in fact just something natural that we have never encountered before. Imagine how weird a snowflake would look to us if we had somehow never observed geometry in nature before. The universe is a pretty big place and we've only scratched the surface.

 

[davepoobond]

havent been up to date with this thing.


has the dimming event happened more than once already or has it only occurred once?

 

[Flo_Evans]

My bet would be that light speed is simply an insurmountable obstacle. Life's out there, but because of the timescales it takes to travel anywhere extra-solar exploration with crafts becomes largely futile. A dyson sphere like construct quickly becomes an obvious set-up when your resources are limited to few planets.

EDIT: Plus you don't have to worry about other species "invading" you if you assume they reach a similar conclusion... then again, said alien species doesn't necessarily have a concept/fear of "invaders".

I don't think they would "invade" so much as just hurl a giant astroid at anything they thought of as a threat or potential future threat.

 

[Alexlf]

I don't think they would "invade" so much as just hurl a giant astroid at anything they thought of as a threat or potential future threat.

What would be the point? The other race could just do the same back by calculating the trajectory of the asteroid, not to mention at that level of technology it would be trivial to defend against. Besides, by the time whatever you hurled at them hit it would be tens of thousands of years in the future. It's hard to say what alien time-scales would be and whether there's any commonality, but it seems absolutely pointless to do.

 

[Abstruse Moose]

I have a hard time thinking that a civilization capable of creating a megastructure around its star would be able to reach that level while being a hostile group bent on destruction and enslavement.

I think it's more a self reflection on humanity than anything.

 

[Flo_Evans]

Yeah I mean war only gave us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy. Not to mention rocket science?

If there are space hippie aliens it stands to reason there are also space asshole aliens.

It would be impossible to tell what kind they are on 1st sighting, so a 1st strike mentality would be the best strategy to preserve the long term survival of yourself.

 

[karasu]

Yeah I mean war only gave us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy. Not to mention rocket science?
.

That's because we're a pretty shitty species. If there were aliens, and there aren't, they wouldn't necessarily be as ass backwards as we are.

 

[Jonm1010]

Yeah I mean war only gave us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy. Not to mention rocket science?

If there are space hippie aliens it stands to reason there are also space asshole aliens.

It would be impossible to tell what kind they are on 1st sighting, so a 1st strike mentality would be the best strategy to preserve the long term survival of yourself.

It also almost ended our species.

I have always had a hard time squaring how these supposed mega hostile selfish, asshole alien species would ever get to be a super species if they treated every threat with such contempt and had such a disrespect and selfish outlook when it comes to other life and environments. I mean the human race isn't completely awful but our species may not even make it if we can't shed our selfish tendencies and stop fucking our home planet up.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I have a hard time thinking that a civilization capable of creating a megastructure around its star would be able to reach that level while being a hostile group bent on destruction and enslavement.

I think it's more a self reflection on humanity than anything.

They may not be hostile to each other, but that altruism may not apply to anything that isn't them.

 

[dabig2]

Yeah I mean war only gave us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy. Not to mention rocket science?

If there are space hippie aliens it stands to reason there are also space asshole aliens.

It would be impossible to tell what kind they are on 1st sighting, so a 1st strike mentality would be the best strategy to preserve the long term survival of yourself.

This is a bullshit argument. Are you implying that a more peaceful Earth where ideas can be transmitted freely among a united species wouldn't have gotten us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy?

We're a horrible species. We will kill ourselves before we can ever achieve these type II civilizations. So, I actually think species that have achieved this level of technological progress are the ones who realized that petty war and tribal conflicts are wholly unnecessary to progress. In fact, they're an impediment to it.

 

[Proelite]

This'll most likely be a disappointment like NASA announcements. I.E space dust or something. It almost always is.

Not getting my hopes up.

 

[Bold One]

I'm just imagining the weeks of unstoppable celebration and debauchery a confirmation of intelligent extraterrestrial life would bring

why debauchery?

 

[liquidtmd]

This is a bullshit argument. Are you implying that a more peaceful Earth where ideas can be transmitted freely among a united species wouldn't have gotten us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy?

We're a horrible species. We will kill ourselves before we can ever achieve these type II civilizations. So, I actually think species that have achieved this level of technological progress are the ones who realized that petty war and tribal conflicts are wholly unnecessary to progress. In fact, they're an impediment to it.

Maybe. I like to believe other species had our similar selfish world views only to eventually unify and move on together in the face of irrefutable proof that we are not alone.

The hope is slim I grant you.

why debauchery?

'Theres Alien megastructures up there baby...but there's some right here in my pants! Let's celebrate!'

 

[Jonm1010]

They may not be hostile to each other, but that altruism may not apply to anything that isn't them.

Wouldn't that be a little problematic when said species is at a similar level of development as we currently are? Such a selfish mindset would be problematic when the consumption of resources begins to create irreparable damage to their planet.

I guess maybe there is a species that was fortunate enough to have a planet where no amount of resource consumption or selfish behavior created a situation where their actions required drastic and sustained enlightenment to maintain a hospitable planet until they reached super species status. Or I guess maybe lucked out and hit a homerun with technological advancement and quickly developed complete clean energy and consumption habits that never required any enlightenment.

However species interdependence seems to be almost a universal trait of successful species. I guess that too could be different elsewhere but I struggle to imagine a scenario where a highly intelligent but fully selfish species reaches such technological advancement.

 

[GDGF]

Would be kind of cool if the megastructure (taking the unlikely assumption that it's not of natural origin) was actually a sentient entity itself, like a post singularity AI containing all of the history of a dead (or evolved, rather) species.

 

[nomis]

So much anthopomorphizing going on ITT. An alien civilization's notions of morality could be so far afield of ours that we would never be able to understand them, let alone forecast them. The only constant any civilization would have, to my limited knowledge, is a need for energy. Those sweet sweet Joules.

Would be kind of cool if the megastructure (taking the unlikely assumption that it's not of natural origin) was actually a sentient entity itself, like a post singularity AI containing all of the history of a dead (or evolved, rather) species.

Now if only this post singularity consciousness had an near infinite understanding of the universe that could facilitate it to open a wormhole and FedEx us a quantum-entangled communication buoy. If only to give us 0.01% of it's stored data before I'm long dead since it's 100ly away.

 

[Dai Kaiju]

Would be kind of cool if the megastructure (taking the unlikely assumption that it's not of natural origin) was actually a sentient entity itself, like a post singularity AI containing all of the history of a dead (or evolved, rather) species.

What if earth is an alien megastructure?

 

[Flo_Evans]

This is a bullshit argument. Are you implying that a more peaceful Earth where ideas can be transmitted freely among a united species wouldn't have gotten us the internet, satellites, and nuclear energy?

We're a horrible species. We will kill ourselves before we can ever achieve these type II civilizations. So, I actually think species that have achieved this level of technological progress are the ones who realized that petty war and tribal conflicts are wholly unnecessary to progress. In fact, they're an impediment to it.

I'm saying both are equally possible, and based on our own planet hostility and aggression seem to be the path of most successful organisms.

 

[Hyun Sai]

What if earth is an alien megastructure?

One theory is that we could easily be like animals in a Zoo under the supervision of something billions of years beyond our comprehension.

 

[Ether_Snake]

My bet would be that light speed is simply an insurmountable obstacle. Life's out there, but because of the timescales it takes to travel anywhere extra-solar exploration with crafts becomes largely futile. A dyson sphere like construct quickly becomes an obvious set-up when your resources are limited to few planets.

EDIT: Plus you don't have to worry about other species "invading" you if you assume they reach a similar conclusion... then again, said alien species doesn't necessarily have a concept/fear of "invaders".

If a giant piece of rock can travel from one solar system to another, some advanced civilization/intelligence could definitely build something that could do the same without falling apart. A few thousand years isn't much in a few millions, and we don't know what such an entity's objectives would be at that point, so who knows what a few years really means to them.

We keep thinking in human terms, but there would come a point where even "civilizations" would cease to exist as a concept for something highly advanced, they would become something else. We wonder what's the point of life, well imagine what that question means for an entity which can easily safeguard its life on a time frame of a few hundreds of thousands of years, but maybe not on a few millions. What is it going to seek to accomplish?

 

[Ovid]

I don't think they would "invade" so much as just hurl a giant astroid at anything they thought of as a threat or potential future threat.

That's because we're a pretty shitty species. If there were aliens, and there aren't, they wouldn't necessarily be as ass backwards as we are.

Maybe infighting amongst the species is a natural part of development. Obviously, we haven't reached the point where we realize what we're doing is stupid.

Maybe they're ahead of that stage and all they care about is harnessing energy and discovering new worlds.

That doesn't necessarily mean that they're hostile.

 

[Jacksinthe]

This'll most likely be a disappointment like NASA announcements. I.E space dust or something. It almost always is.

Not getting my hopes up.

Probably just swamp gas.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I'm kinda more excited for the much more likely event that this is a natural phenomenon we never expected.

 

[theepicoftyler]

This'll most likely be a disappointment like NASA announcements. I.E space dust or something. It almost always is.

Not getting my hopes up.

You only have yourself to blame for disappointment.

 

[aliengmr]

Personally, I find the discovery of some weird natural phenomena much more interesting than aliens.

 

[nomis]

Personally, I find the discovery of some weird natural phenomena much more interesting than aliens.

That's what makes this discovery so truly fascinating to me. No matter what the final explanation, it will be beyond our current understanding and observations.

 

[EVIL]

I find the idea of a dyson sphere to be kind of stupid.

Lets assume most life in the universe is hostile and places its own survival above other life.

So you build this huge thing that broadcasts your location and relative tech level.

But then again maybe they are fully mobile so by the time we see them setup, they are already at the next star.

Would be crazy if all we could ever find is traces of activity but never actually observe who or what is building it.

Even crazier, we could of made it, earth could of just been seeded from this civilization.

I'm just not sure a race advanced enough to harness a stars energy would need or want to.

We are already trending towards efficiency as solutions to energy problems not MOAR POWER. I guess it depends on the goal of the species. Exploration/colonization or just existing?

A dyson sphere doesnt transmit any signals per say, altrough the use of it can generate radio waves. For example, we can detect radio waves from stars, but that doesnt mean there are little aliens transmiting. they are just natural generated electromagnetic waves.

Also a species advanced enough to build dysonspheres are definatly able to mask the waves so it looks like a natural source (especially to our limited monkey bains)

And the light we observed is 1450 years old - meaning at this moment, their tech level is even more advanced. Also even if we would be able to detect their radiowaves and classify them as alien made, it would take us 1450 years to reach them if we would be traveling at the speed of light.

 

[Bold One]

Would be kind of cool if the megastructure (taking the unlikely assumption that it's not of natural origin) was actually a sentient entity itself, like a post singularity AI containing all of the history of a dead (or evolved, rather) species.

.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

A dyson sphere doesnt transmit any signals per say, altrough the use of it can generate radio waves. For example, we can detect radio waves from stars, but that doesnt mean there are little aliens transmiting. they are just natural generated electromagnetic waves.

Also a species advanced enough to build dysonspheres are definatly able to mask the waves so it looks like a natural source (especially to our limited monkey bains)

And the light we observed is 1450 years old - meaning at this moment, their tech level is even more advanced. Also even if we would be able to detect their radiowaves and classify them as alien made, it would take us 1450 years to reach them if we would be traveling at the speed of light.

That's kind of mind boggling to think about. If we sent a signal out today it would take nearly 3000 years to get a response, if we even get any. Imagine if we did, though, after all that time, presuming humanity is still around then.

 

[Simon Belmont]

One theory is that we could easily be like animals in a Zoo under the supervision of something billions of years beyond our comprehension.

That is a hypothesis.