Tal Shiar Agent
Member
Could the star be slowly consumed by a blackhole? Or would the loss of matter trigger a nova?
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Star exhibits strange light patterns which could be a sign of alien activity
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Would that work with how the star isn't simply continously drained but rather obscured for certain periods of time?
It's more like "it's probably some never-before-encountered natural phenomenon but would be cool if...aliens"
Mohonky
Member
If they could build a Dyson sphere I don't think we would have anything particularly useful to defend ourselves with. It'd be like discovering a tribe deep in the jungle that has never seen the modern world being carpet bombed by drones. They wouldn't even know about till it was over.
Somewhere there's probably cool short stories on this. Humans observing a super-weapon out in space being constructed to destroy them. Of course the humans don't realize that it's a weapon till they're already dead from it. So something like a Gamma Ray Burst super-weapon that fired its shot back during the Dark Ages on earth, but only just now reached us just as we spotted the weapon in space.
Nealand Liquor
Member
Anoregon
The flight plan I just filed with the agency list me, my men, Dr. Pavel here. But only one of you!
Well it wouldn't even be "in real time" because we are literally looking thousands of years into the past.
sans_pants
avec_pénis
Wo that's pretty spectacular
Insane Metal
Member
Well that is what I meant by the people of Earth watching the aliens from afar and only getting the most vague details because they don't have anywhere near the tech to watch the events in fold in detail as they happen.
They are watching as it "happens" even though these events may have occurred thousands of years prior.
I guess a similar idea is a species that thought arrogantly thought they knew everything and how the universe works only to be shocked by this massive finding of not only an alien species but one so far advanced that we are like ants, maybe even amoebas to them. It shatters their whole world view so the story would almost come more from the world and peoples reactions to the events happening at a star thousands of light years away.
I guess its kind of sort of similar to the short story Nightfall by Arthur C. Clark about an alien species whose planet's sky never had any stars until a world shaking change and they thing blocking the stars in the sky disappears and for the first time in their species history they can see stars and realize that their is a lot more to their reality than their tiny rock.
Slayer-33
Liverpool-2
They're slowly making their way to us. Consuming one star at a time.
smokeandmirrors
Banned
THE DREAM IS ALIVE
OG_Original Gamer
Member
The aliens are excited about X Files coming back on, they're big Fox Mulder fans.
Nice.
I was so excited when I saw that this thread was bumped.
At that point what would they want with our little backwater gravity well anyways.
If you can control suns or travel between systems, everything you'd need for resources are out around pluto.
Everything except slaves for building Dyson spheres!
Was just thinking that if there are any sufficiently more advanced civilizations relatively nearby, we'd likely be able to see them before they could see us:
If they developed early enough that it would account for the distance light would take to travel between us, any evidence of that would be visibly transmitted well before we'd show any evidence of our advancements. It would be like secretly peaking into another reality. It'd probably also be a countdown to how much tech we'd need to advance to develop technology that could enable us to escape should they prove hostile. Maybe a division of humanity would form?: those that would stay behind to greet an inevitable contact situation and those who'd leave to avoid it.
If they developed early enough that it would account for the distance light would take to travel between us, any evidence of that would be visibly transmitted well before we'd show any evidence of our advancements. It would be like secretly peaking into another reality. It'd probably also be a countdown to how much tech we'd need to advance to develop technology that could enable us to escape should they prove hostile. Maybe a division of humanity would form?: those that would stay behind to greet an inevitable contact situation and those who'd leave to avoid it.
It's cute how we see them as equals lol, we're so goddamn smug and douchey about all of this. I bet what we are to ants, they are to us. If there's life out there, I bet they see us as worthless beings not even bothered with reaching out unless they have a purpose for it. And I bet that purpose isn't lovey dovey.
Tal Shiar Agent
Member
It would be neat if first contact was something out of Harry Turtledove's short story "The Road Not Taken".
Omegasquash
Member
To the bolded, they'd be seeing 1480 years into our past like we're seeing that far into theirs. Assuming they travel at the speed of light or very near it and travel to us starting now, it would be 1.5 millennia before they get to us.
If we can somehow figure out out to not kill ourselves between then and now, I have faith (and nothing more) that we would be able to reach near light speed, and have traveled to nearby stars. Whether or not we find another planet to live on is totally up in the air.
buttery fistful
Member
my mom has told me a story about seeing a ufo when she was a girl. her and a friend just straight-up seen a ufo hovering over some houses at night before shooting off. i've asked her to tell me the story a million times. i envy her.
maabus1999
Member
Remember this is 1480 Light years away, so whatever is going on, is already ~1500 years old
Himynameischris
Member
that's insane
Ziltoidia 9
Member
They could already be here!
That means the Dyson sphere is already been built!
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
This is great, the first theory was a dyson sphere, and supplementary information adds to the theory's credibility.
So as the sphere is built, increasingly less light is reaching out from the star.
So as the sphere is built, increasingly less light is reaching out from the star.
It means they already shot their planet-destroying laser at us.
Hari Seldon
Member
You are waaaay too late haha. Peter F. Hamilton's entire Commonwealth series starts out this way,and I'm sure others use a similar premise.
The fact that we are advanced enough to affect our planet (global warming) makes me think they would care.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
"hey, remember that species that could have turned out to be troublesome? yeah, they're taking care of themselves."
Yeah, I know.
Thus the requirement that their technological development begin early enough to account for the distance it would take for us to detect their presence at our earliest ability. Only they wouldn't notice us because we'd be technologically dead as far as whatever light that would have reached them at that point. Hahaha - that would be amazing.
I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a NuWho episode sort of based on that.
Ants can undermine a structure if they dig under it enough, drawing the attention of the humans using the structure. Doing this rarely ends well for the ants.
I feel this happens to me all the time. I come up with an incredible idea for a Sci fi story and then discuss it with someone and they inevitably bring up another author did that already.
It does give me a new Sci fi story to check out though!
Insane Metal
Member
So it could either be related to aliens or some weird unknown behavior never before seen in any F-type stars. This is so exciting! I hope they keep their eyes looking at KIC 8462852 for a long time.
Hari Seldon
Member
Hamilton's book is about a future civilization encountering a dyson sphere. I feel like there is still room for a book talking about our current civilization noticing one.
That story was written by Asimov, wasn't it? And in the end... s
ociety destroys itself because they're not equipped to deal with the new reality.
Yeah, by the time they get here it would be too late lol.
It's also possible that they assume that we do what all intelligent species do and destroy themselves. No reason to even bother trying to seek them out.
I was thinking on a galactic level.
You're right though.
Grinchy
Banned
Even if it was aliens, maybe in the 1500 years after this event took place, they all died out. We have no idea. And even if they could come visit us at light speed, in 1500 years, we could all be dead too. It's just too far away for us to interact.
I guess it would be interesting if we ever saw evidence of life in the universe, but it seems so insane to think there isn't life out there somewhere (or was, or will be) that I just don't think a confirmation is all that mind-blowing.
I guess it would be interesting if we ever saw evidence of life in the universe, but it seems so insane to think there isn't life out there somewhere (or was, or will be) that I just don't think a confirmation is all that mind-blowing.
It wouldn't be that, since we've seen plenty of those. Black holes eating stars are a comparitively common and well-known phenomenon. This star is demonstrating something completely unknown.
Every time this thread gets bumped I get more excited. This latest news really makes me want to believe that it is a superstructure.
Sorry I meant Asimov. For some reason I always mix up their names despite not being at all similar.
So if this new Update is correct it's been dimming for over 100 years, and most likely can't be explained by comets.
A dyson sphere seems slightly more plausible. But whatever is happening with KIC 8462852 it's really interesting. Even if it's (most likely) a natural phenomenon. It's something we've never observed before.
Right now, I just wish we had much much better telescopes outside of earth's atmosphere, compared to anything currently available.
Time to get cracking then... now to think of a title as eye catching as it great at conveying the idea and theme of the story!
I'm not sure if they are actually building one but I'm fairly sure they have the plans and what not to build a space based telescope that would blow the Hubble out of the water. I forget the name of it but it was very impressive sounding in terms of power and clarity, looked pretty bad ass too.
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