Photo: An artist’s impression of a Dyson sphere surrounding a star; DOTTED YETI/SHUTTERSTOCK
A new study has stated that alien civilizations could be detected by looking for 'Dyson spheres' in the deep reaches of the universe.
A Dyson sphere is a theoretical energy-producing tool that was first imagined by theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson in the 1960s. Such spheres are huge structures that fit around massive objects such as stars, or even black holes, in order to harvest huge amounts of energy.
The new research paper by astronomer Tiger Yu-Yang Hsiao, of National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, has postulated that advanced alien civilizations have likely used or are using Dyson spheres, or constructions similar to Dyson spheres, to power their advanced societies. If scientists then focused on finding these spheres, we could then pinpoint where these alien civilizations are located in the universe.
The paper states:
"In this study, we consider an energy source of a well-developed Type II or a Type III civilization. They need a more powerful energy source than their own Sun. An accretion disk, a corona, and relativistic jets could be potential power stations for a Type II civilization. Our results suggest that for a stellar-mass black hole, even at a low Eddington ratio, the accretion disk could provide hundreds of times more luminosity than a main sequence star."
The paper also looks at how we could detect these Dyson spheres from Earth. In order to do this, they postulate on what the spheres could be made of, and what form they would take, with particular focus on alien civilizations using a series of satellites around a black hole.
The paper goes on to say:
"The largest luminosity can be collected from an accretion disk, reaching 100,000 times the luminosity of the Sun, enough to maintain a Type II civilization. Moreover, if a Dyson sphere collects not only the electromagnetic radiation but also other types of energy (e.g., kinetic energy) from the jets, the total collected energy would be approximately five times larger."
These objects could likely be detected across multiple wavelengths the paper finds.
While the paper is entirely speculative, it is one more way in which we may one day detect whether we really are alone in the universe.
[h/t: Science Alert]
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