Archived Comets cant explain weird alien megastructure star after all (newscientist.com)
submitted ago by Troll
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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75 upvotes, 9 downvotes (89% upvoted it)
Archived Comets cant explain weird alien megastructure star after all (newscientist.com)
submitted ago by Troll
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[–] cointelpro_shill 1 point 7 points 8 points (+8|-1) ago
If "After All" in the headline is intentional, that makes 3 David Bowie references in this article
[–] tame ago
Given the others, do you really think it's not?
[–] arrjayjee 1 point 7 points 8 points (+8|-1) ago
Possible alien megastructure that's been slowly diminishing in brightness? At this rate it will disappeaar altogether which leads me to believe it's a Dyson Sphere.
[–] 3930401? 0 points 11 points 11 points (+11|-0) ago (edited ago)
Based on what we believe we know about technology, a structure like that would emit radiation in the infrared range, which would be detectable, even when the object isn't blocking our view of the star. Of course, it is possible that this is some form of technology that we currently cannot recognize, which wouldn't emit radiation. On the other hand, it could also be a small black hole that is either within that system, or moving on a course somewhere between us and the star that keeps it in line with that star from our view.
[–] Codewow 0 points 11 points 11 points (+11|-0) ago
Maybe aliens have learned how to harness radiation to use as power as well. We only use radiation for heat right now.
[–] nicethingyoucanthave 0 points 6 points 6 points (+6|-0) ago
It doesn't necessarily have to radiate in all directions though. Moving energy around is what civilizations do. Maybe their power stations or their heat exchangers are at the poles, and we're viewing the system on edge.
[–] Loumedia 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
His refutation was based solely on anecdotal human evidence. He says it probably isn't aliens because of how fast the construction is, however how the fuck would he know?
[–] [deleted] 1 point 2 points 3 points (+3|-1) ago
[–] SirFoxx 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
He's here all week folks. Shows at 5 and 7pm. Please try the veal.
[–] Mal-2 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago (edited ago)
Could it simply be some rapidly moving gas or dust or other form of obscuration that isn't part of the star's environment, but happens to lie on a line between us and it? Perhaps what we're seeing is just a dense patch in our own Oort cloud.
[–] Mal-2 ago (edited ago)
Well, someone else suggested I crunch the numbers, so I did. Here is that post in its entirely.
[–] 8_billion_eaters 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Ringworld
[–] bisaya 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
unstable ringworld
[–] 8_billion_eaters 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
"MIT students attending the 1971 World Science Fiction Convention chanted, "The Ringworld is unstable! The Ringworld is unstable!" Niven says that one reason he wrote The Ringworld Engineers was to address these engineering problems."
[–] Javik2186 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Speaker system: "Welcome to Ringworld visitor, please enjoy our award winning Gregorian chant during your stay. Please enjoy your stay at Ringworld!"
[–] pm-me-your-pm 1 point 2 points 3 points (+3|-1) ago
And yet the article is implying that it's more likely that the structures are artificial?
[–] rwbj 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Most of everything we know indicates life, and presumably intelligent life, is nothing special even if we have yet to observe it outside of our planet. Searching for dyson spheres has been formally hypothesized as a means of detecting advanced alien civilizations long before KIC 8462852. So it's not like these ideas and hypothesis are coming up after the fact, even though this particular star does have one unexpected quirk in the lack of detectable emitted infrared radiation. Add to this the fact that we've only relatively recently had the technology and consequently the data available to begin actively looking for dyson spheres and it's not quite as 'out there' as it might seem at first.
Really this wouldn't be a big deal if this was just new evidence of a previously hypothesized particle or something benign along those lines. The reason it seems so inconceivable and improbable is not because of the evidence, but because of the implications.
[–] pm-me-your-pm 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
I agree, but I also don't think that "aliens" should be the first hypothesis proposed, unless there is overwhelming evidence to suggest it's the case. This isn't the fault of the scientists doing the research - it's the fault of the media. In the original article a few months ago, someone made an off-the-cuff remark like "Hey, it could be alien superstructures, for all we know", and the headlines were "SCIENTISTS CONFIRM ALIENS EXIST!!!!!". Not that drastic, but you get the idea. I just don't like the sensationalism.
[–] ovix 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
What about a dense filament of gas at some considerable distance away from the star where it won't be heated up by the star but be sufficiently dense to cause the dimming effects? The fact that infrared signal does not have anomalies points to that.
[–] dspfoisdafodsi ago
Perhaps our solar system creation model is wrong...
[–] ObviouslyAHuman ago
Show us what you got!