Sorry, Alien Hunters: No Signs of Life From KIC 8462852. That So-Called Alien Megastructure Could Just Be a Distorted Star The Many, Many Times Astronomers Mistook Mundane Phenomena for Aliens. Search For Intelligent Aliens Near Bizarre Dimming Star Has Begun. 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. NASA's Kepler space telescope found that KIC 8462852 dimmed oddly and dramatically several times over the past few years. The dimming events were far too substantial to be caused by a planet crossing the star's face, researchers say, and other possible explanations, such as an enormous dust cloud, don't add up, either. [13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Alien Life] The leading hypothesis at the moment involves a swarm of comets that may have been sent careening toward KIC 8462852, possibly after a gravitational jostle by a passing star.
Before the media blows up reporting on how we've found a Dyson Sphere what does the paper for KIC 8462852 actually say? : askscience. Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' orbiting star near the Milky Way. A large cluster of objects in space look like something you would "expect an alien civilization to build", astronomers have said.
Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish a report on the “bizarre” star system - suggesting the objects could be a “swarm of megastructures”. He told The Independent: "I can’t figure this thing out and that’s why it’s so interesting, so cool – it just doesn’t seem to make sense. " Speaking to The Atlantic, Mr Wright said: "Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilisation to build.
I was fascinated by how crazy it looked. " The snappily named KIC 8462852 star lies just above the Milky Way, between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Here's More Evidence That Galactic Super-Civilizations Don't Exist. How SETI Will Understand Messages Broadcast by an Alien Intelligence. How We Could Detect an Alien Apocalypse From Earth. This New Infrared Telescope Could Help Us Detect Dyson Spheres. We Should Be Able To Detect Spaceships Moving Near The Speed Of Light. "According to Yurtsever and Wilkinson's new analysis, each cubic centimeter of space contains over 400 microwave photons.
" Question for you, George: would it be possible to collect these microwave photons and use them as fuel? If the interstellar medium is so thick with them, maybe small ships wouldn't have to carry so much fuel. Flagged The problem is that a photons energy is contained in it's momentum - in this case, a good deal of that relative momentum is derived from the fact you're moving so quickly already. On the other hand, there are those baryonic particles - largely hydrogen - in interstellar space, and proposals exist to harvest this to use in fusion reactors. 14 Intriguing Ways We Could Detect Signs Of An Alien Civilization.
Meet SETI's new boss: Geoff Marcy, the planet hunter. Crows could be the key to understanding alien intelligence. But seriously, Annalee....
We're all ready for you to write the definitive science fiction novel about crows. In fact, you've been teasing us all far too long now :-) Write it already! Flagged. Invitation to ETI: An Open letter to Alien Lurkers. First, a message for you humans out there, who happen to be reading this right now.
As many of you know, I approach the topic of non-human intelligent life from two perspectives. As an author using fiction to explore notions beyond today's science, I explore the forms and motivations that alien beings might assume, from outlandish to eerily familiar. I am also involved in the same subject at the scientific end, participating in the International Astronomical Union's Subcommittee on Bioastronomy. SETI -- the Search For Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence -- can be a difficult and confusing topic, straddling the concerns of everyone from sober researchers to politicians to dreamers hoping that alien contact may somehow save humanity "from ourselves" The good news?
Nearly all SETI researchers agree that the public should be told right away, after any radio contact is confirmed. A minority in the SETI community thinks it would make better sense not to reply right away. Dr. 1. 2. 3. Ask Dr. SETI: Isn't the Invitation to ETI Futile? Ask Dr.
SETI ® Chapter 5: Sociology Isn't the Invitation to ETI Futile? Dear Dr. SETI: I recently visited the Invitation to ETI website (IETI.org), and have a little difficulty understanding how extraterrestrial intelligence (even when it's really highly intelligent) could use this web page. Marten, Netherlands The Doctor Responds: You raise some valid points, of course.
. (1) the type of entity which we consider most likely to encounter and interact with the IETI website is probably not biological, but rather an advanced interstellar AI probe. . (2) even if no such robotic probes exist, the contents of this website are a profound statement to the inhabitants of Planet Earth (many of whom can indeed interpret both human languages and our internet protocols).