Author Topic: Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' near Milky Way  (Read 6052 times)

So is a picture of said structures gonna be released, or...?

I've been all over NASA's website and can't even find a mention about this.


So is a picture of said structures gonna be released, or...?
We don't have a picture. Not in any regular sense.

Basically, we've got telescopes aimed at that star. And they measure the amount of light coming from it.
That light is pretty consistent most of the time.
Every now and then there's a little decrease in it's brightness, and this is usually because something has gotten in the way of it.

This technique is usually what lets us identify planets around distant stars. By seeing a dip in the brightness we can tell that a planet has crossed between the star and our view, dimming the light.


The light from this star has also had a dimming effect, but the pattern of the effect doesn't quite match the patterns we normally expect from planets orbiting a star.
As a result, some are speculating that it's a different megastructure (we say megastructure only because it has to be a very big thing (like planet sized) to create a noticable difference in brightness) from a planet.

It's only speculation that it is 'alien', because we don't have many theories for what else it could be, if it's not a planet.
Furthermore, the speculation that it is alien is coming from someone who works at SETI, who's job is basically to search for signs of life out in space. It may just be them getting a little excited.

i'm confused on how people are so interested about this. there's no proof of aliens, and this doesn't add to proof. could be anything.

It's only speculation that it is 'alien', because we don't have many theories for what else it could be, if it's not a planet.
Furthermore, the speculation that it is alien is coming from someone who works at SETI, who's job is basically to search for signs of life out in space. It may just be them getting a little excited.

I feel like it would be more reasonable to assume that it's some kind of asteroid formation or something else of a benign nature, especially if you consider some of the possibilities of the fermi paradox.

i'm confused on how people are so interested about this. there's no proof of aliens, and this doesn't add to proof. could be anything.
It's 'celebrity' science, really.
Mention aliens as a concept, and people will pick it up quickly.

But most people aren't going to read the actual scientific paper that covers these findings.

I feel like it would be more reasonable to assume that it's some kind of asteroid formation or something else of a benign nature, especially if you consider some of the possibilities of the fermi paradox.
That's probably much more likely.
The article Nonnel linked suggests that it may be a dense cloud of comets instead, which is also feasible.

Alien life isn't impossible, but it's too early to be getting our hopes up for it.

the only support of new life i could see would be the RNA world

i'm confused on how people are so interested about this. there's no proof of aliens, and this doesn't add to proof. could be anything.
Given what dooble just posted above, I agree with you. Aliens is highly unlikely from this.

How did an alien super structure become the most reasonable explanation for this? I don't understand

How did an alien super structure become the most reasonable explanation for this? I don't understand
it isn't so much the most reasonable as it is the most exciting

I'm not sure they would see much of anything, considering their image will be of the time around the fall of Rome

unless they've moved into an area under 100 light years away
wait what
explain pls

wait what
explain pls
the star with the supposed megastructure is 1481 light years away, so the image they have of our system is from 1481 years in the past.

My dating was probably inaccurate, but either way, they'll be seeing a pre-radio civilization and will likely have no idea it even exists, let alone that it's progressed to the point of spaceflight between then and now.

but if they had a super telescope at the time we're detecting them, they'd be seeing us twice as long ago

the star with the supposed megastructure is 1481 light years away, so the image they have of our system is from 1481 years in the past.

My dating was probably inaccurate, but either way, they'll be seeing a pre-radio civilization and will likely have no idea it even exists, let alone that it's progressed to the point of spaceflight between then and now.
They'd also be absolutely in the perfect spot for observing the human species mature