Tag: Alien megastructure
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Bad moon falling: Geophysicist adds her own scientific spin to ‘Moonfall’ movie
“Moonfall” features a resurrected space shuttle and an ominously looming moon. (Courtesy of Lionsgate) Even geophysicist Mika McKinnon, one of the science consultants for a $140 million disaster movie called “Moonfall,” admits that the moon-crashing tale is ridiculously exuberant. But what’s wrong with that? “A movie is supposed to be fun, and science is allowed to be fun,”…
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Scientists look for new ways to track the technosignatures of alien civilizations
An artist’s conception shows a crumbling megastructure known as a Dyson sphere orbiting a distant star. Could such structures produce detectable technosignatures? (Danielle Futselaar Illustration) Could extraterrestrial civilizations leave their fingerprints as chlorofluorocarbons in planetary atmospheres, or the waste heat generated by industrial processes, or artificial bursts of neutrinos or gravitational waves? That’s what a…
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Are we alone? NASA turns to the search for technosignatures beyond Earth
An artist’s representation shows a megastructure known as a Dyson sphere capturing the energy from a distant star. Such a structure could create observable technosignatures pointing to the civilization behind its construction. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar / SETI International) It’s been a quarter-century since Congress cut off NASA funding for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or…
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‘Eggs’ for alien Earths? At 94, physicist Freeman Dyson’s brain is still going strong
Physicist Freeman Dyson’s latest book is “Maker of Patterns: An Autobiography Through Letters.” (Dan Komoda / Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ USA) Alien megaspheres … rockets powered by nuclear bombs … freeze-dried life in outer space: These are just some of the ideas that have flowered in the brain of physicist Freeman Dyson, and…
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Alien megastructure? Forget about it, weird star’s discoverers say after further study
Astronomer Tabetha Boyajian discusses Tabby’s Star, “the most mysterious star in the universe,” during a TED talk in February 2016 in Vancouver, B.C. (TED via YouTube) The astronomers who once speculated that an alien megastructure might be responsible for the weirdly fluctuating light from a distant star have now fully ruled out that way-out explanation.…
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Astronomers catch mysteriously dimming ‘alien megastructure’ star in the act
Tabby’s Star – also known as KIC 8462852 or the “alien megastructure” star – is at it again. And this time the world is watching. The star in the constellation Cygnus has intrigued astronomers for a year and a half because they can’t quite explain why it periodically dims. One hypothesis is that aliens are building an…
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Astronomers round up the unusual suspects for ‘alien megastructure’ star
This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech) That mysterious “alien megastructure” star is still a mystery, but the most plausible explanations appear to be dense patches of interstellar gas or dust that just happened to pass in front of the star. That’s the upshot of analyses conducted by the…
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Astronomers’ latest analysis turns ‘alien megastructure’ star into a triple mystery
This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet. Astronomers say it’s possible that such a phenomenon could explain some aspects of the dimming pattern for a mysterious star called KIC 8462852, but not all aspects. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech) It’s been almost a year since astronomers first speculated that a strangely dimming star called…
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SETI Institute launches radio search for alien life amid 20,000 red dwarf stars
An artist’s conception shows a planetary system around a red dwarf star. (Credit: ESO) The SETI Institute is shifting the focus of its search for extraterrestrial intelligence to places that could harbor life that’s not as we know it: 20,000 red-dwarf star systems. “Red dwarfs – the dim bulbs of the cosmos – have received scant attention…
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‘Alien megastructure’ revisited: Oddly dimming star poses new mystery
An artist’s representation shows a crumbling megastructure known as a Dyson sphere orbiting KIC 8462852. (Credit: Danielle Futselaar / SETI International) He’s not saying it’s aliens – but an astronomer has raised new questions about KIC 8462852, the strange star that stirred up a debate about “alien megastructures” months ago. In a paper submitted to Astrophysical Journal…