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"It has also been hypothesized that the changes in brightness could be signs of activity associated with intelligent extraterrestrial life constructing a Dyson
by mojomark 5y ago
"It has also been hypothesized that the changes in brightness could be signs of activity associated with intelligent extraterrestrial life constructing a Dyson swarm; however, further analysis based on data through the end of 2017 showed wavelength-dependent dimming consistent with dust but not an opaque object such as an alien megastructure, which would block all wavelengths of light equally.[17][9][19]"
Fun, to think about, and who's to say the Dyson Sphere isn't somehow transluscent, but this sounds like pretty good evidence to my pea brain that we're observing a non-Dyson Sphere object. Definitely exciting candidate target though and I'm happy we keep searching for our celestial cousins.
- intrepidhero 5y agoI was confused by that statement and the sibling comment that a Dyson swarm would block visible light but not IR and Tabby's star seems to dim in IR. So is it dimming all wavelengths or not? Is it dimming some visible (but not all) and IR?
- marcosdumay 5y ago> would block visible light but not IR It would not block some spectrum of IR, probably at the far IR region. Compared to a star, it should probably emit much less near visible IR. It depends on what temperature the aliens prefer, but I wouldn't expect anything similar to a star's emissions. Anyway, there exist telescopes tuned to far IR. I don't know what kind was used on that observation.
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoIt's not that it wouldn't block IR from the star. It's that they would radiate waste heat as IR.
- robbomacrae 5y agoUnless the dark forest [0] theory is correct and the Dyson Sphere is designed to look to all intents and purposes like a dust cloud.. (not that it helps us with our discovering). 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest