Alien Megastructures
The March 2022 blog looked at the possible different types of universal civilizations and the technologies they may apply. This month looks at the possibility of alien structures in faraway places, and the proof [or lack of] for their existence.
What kind of structures
For the most part scientists seem to be concentrating on what could be alien-built Dyson spheres. This is extremely difficult, and usually fraught with danger and interpretation problems. For example, a team of astronomers recently combed through a collection of odd stars that are candidates for Dyson spheres — artificial constructs designed by aliens to capture energy from stars. Instead, the scientists found the weird stars are more likely to be hot dust-obscured galaxies, or hot dogs, if you like acronyms.
This demonstrates that if we ever find more conclusive evidence for aliens based on Dyson spheres or similar structures, we’re going to have to work hard to prove they’re not just cosmic Hot DOGs, or other currently unknown space phenomena.
Other means of discovery
Of course, it was always likely there were more mundane explanations for the excess infrared signatures of these stars. However, they give us a starting point in the hunt for alien technology and the extraterrestrials who engineer it.
Next steps will involve investigating those stars with more powerful instruments, like those aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. This will mean looking for other biosignatures like atmospheric carbon, oxygen, and molecules which are only known to be produced by life.
Deep Space Structure Lurking
And just when you thought it was safe to enter the cosmos:
A colossal structure in the distant Universe is defying our understanding of how the Universe evolved.
In light that has traveled for 6.9 billion years to reach us, astronomers have found a giant, almost perfect ring of galaxies. This ensemble is some 1.3 billion light-years in diameter. It doesn’t match any known structure or formation mechanism.
The Big Ring, as the structure has been named, could mean that we need to reassess the current conceptions of cosmology.
The discovery, led by astronomer Alexia Lopez of the University of Central Lancashire, was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society.
It’s the second giant structure discovered by Lopez and her colleagues. The first, called the Giant Arc, is coincidentally in the same part of the sky at about the same distance. When the arc’s discovery was announced in 2021, it puzzled astronomers. The Big Ring, of course, only deepens the mystery.
At the moment, nobody knows for certain what the Big Ring and the Giant Arc signify. They could just be chance arrangements of galaxies twirling across the sky, although the likelihood of that seems pretty small.
References and Future Reading
https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/did-scientists-find-evidence-of-alien-megastructures-in-the-milky-way
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