Historically, the quest to find alien life by organizations such as Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has involved painstakingly combing through radio signals. But a group of Penn State astronomers have another method. These astronomers have begun an extensive two-year search for Dyson Spheres, massive alien solar power stations.
Not just a figment of science fiction writers, Dyson Spheres were first theorized by physicist Freeman Dyson in the 1950s. According to Dyson’s theory, the interior of a immense spherical structure formed around a star could absorb the entire energy output of that star.
Dyson went so far as to speculate that these structures would allow long term survival of a technological civilization and proposed that determining the existence of these structures might lead to the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Jason Wright, the leader of the Penn State team, said researchers have determined that a solid shell Dyson sphere is not mechanically feasible. So, this has led the astronomers to the theory that they should look, instead, for Dyson Swarms. These swarms would be a collection Dyson rings that completely circle the star from all directions, thereby creating a sphere.
If the theory holds true and the search is successful, Penn State astronomers may demonstrate to the world that aliens do exist – and they can teach us a thing or two about solar technology.
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4046 total comments so far. What's your opinion ?
Problem with SETI is that they are looking for us. The math does not support this from where I stand. You must look for older species or younger species. Your technique is flawed because everything your looking at is very old by the time you see it. You are limited by the speed of light. So your going to have to expand your thinking and thus the medium your looking at. Radio waves might be useful for a thinking model but are hardly the stuff to look at to find advanced life in the universe. The niche time span is the problem we will someday move beyond electromagnetic observation so why do you think an advanced species would still be using it? Going to have to think a few more years down the road. Think about photon compression and you may have a chance to plug into the universe wifi. The way I see it photon compression may be the quickest form of communication in the universe because it does not rely on the speed of the particle to transfer the data but the collision of one particle to the other. Imagine a straw with marbles in it and the marbles are tightly fitted together... when one marble is imparted with information the marble on the other end of the line is instantly aware of the information because the change is felt through compression, vibration etc,. what ever you want to call it. Some think it's bi-location or that the particles are bound together through extra dimension bonds. I think your going to have to start listening to the modulated speed of the stacked up particles between here and where ever your wanting to easedrop in on. It's just logic.
