Has Kepler Discovered A Dyson Sphere?
- Thread starter alex_greene
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Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
Could be, might also be a ringworld.alex_greene said:
http://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/viewtopic.php?f=89&t=115111
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Anonymous
Guest
Damn, Dragoner, you've read Blindsight...
Let's see if we get any TV from space as the next set of scans comes in. I'm gonna throw my guess out that we will not detect game shows from KIC 8462852 (or much else).
Let's see if we get any TV from space as the next set of scans comes in. I'm gonna throw my guess out that we will not detect game shows from KIC 8462852 (or much else).
Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
So? Why should we be alone? People act as if its a big deal if we discover a Type II civilization one thousand light years away.-Daniel- said:
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Anonymous
Guest
Tom Kalbfus said:
You don't think it's a big deal to discover alien sentient life?
Really?
-Daniel-
Emperor Mongoose
Please don't do that. I never said we should be alone. I do think it would be quite exciting to find proof of another civilization out there. I also think of all the impacts it could then have on many of our beliefs for example.Tom Kalbfus said:
If you want to play like it would be no big deal, fine with me. I do respect your right to believe what you believe. Just please don't tell me what I should or should not believe.
Thank You
FallingPhoenix
Mongoose
alex_greene said:
I would think a true Dyson Sphere wouldn't result in intermittent dimming like this one is described as...
The satellite net kind, maybe...
hiro said:
Sure, but our utter worthlessness is our greatest protection, what do we possibly have that aliens could care about? Kinda like when I was a spikey haired punk on Ferndale in the 80's, nobody messed with me because I had nothing.
Blindsight is a cool book, some of the best aliens around in the scramblers, a bit on the horror side though.
-Daniel- said:
We aren't alone, we can't be, life is chemistry, sentience, just another niche. It would be cool if it was a Dyson Sphere, don't get me wrong, they would also have built it a long time ago.
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Anonymous
Guest
dragoner said:
"Mostly harmless" :mrgreen:
dragoner said:
Agreed, we just haven't met the neighbours yet.
dragoner said:
No offence to Alex cos I don't think he meant the title too seriously but I can't see how anyone can come to any conclusions about what is obscuring the star. There's an awful lot we have yet to learn, the chance is so much higher that this is one such thing than it is an alien structure.
hiro said:
Welcome to the monkey house.
For all we know they have been here and all the alien abduction stories are true, about the one thing we are is a curiosity.
If it is a snapshot of a long time ago, they could also have come and gone by now. You're right in that it could be just a lot of debris in the system causing the occlusion, it is as likely as anything else. We could hope it's aliens, aliens to come save us from ourselves, like the Hain in some Ursula K LeGuin novel; where's an ansible when we need one?
alex_greene
Guest
Or it is a built thing, they are still there, and they have been there for some 1500 years.dragoner said:
Fortunately, they won't be aware of our presence for another 1500 years when our radio signals reach them, and most likely they won't be able to respond for another 1500.
Assuming there is life there, sentient and capable of building a Type II civilisation, that is. It really could be some sort of weird space dust - for all we know, the star could be surrounded by filaments of dark matter.
Tom Kalbfus
Mongoose
Well its a big galaxy after all and they are 1500 light years away, if they wanted to come here, they would have been here by now. If any one of them happens to be looking at us through a telescope, the Earth they will see would the the Earth of the year 500, at about the time of King Arthur. Earth of the year 500 AD look much the same as Earth circa 10000 BC, they wouldn't have a clue that there was a technological civilization here. They wouldn't be able to do anything about us till about 5000 AD most likely, and if we survive that long, we might be building our own megastructures by this time.-Daniel- said:
Reynard
Emperor Mongoose
I would be just as excited to see an unusual system configuration such as a disc or asteroid belt that can produce the effects described. It would again mean the universe has many surprises.
My take on the phenomenon being of alien origin. If it is a ringworld, that puts them on a technology we're not even close to. So far, that ring would be at least 1500 years old. It will take close to that time for our various signals to reach there and discover us if star travel isn't possible. If star travel isn't possible then they took their system, broke it down and reformed it for an ultimate habitation on a fantastic scale maybe because they can never leave.
If they do have star travel, they quite possibly know we're here and are either very subtle or observing or don't care.
My take on the phenomenon being of alien origin. If it is a ringworld, that puts them on a technology we're not even close to. So far, that ring would be at least 1500 years old. It will take close to that time for our various signals to reach there and discover us if star travel isn't possible. If star travel isn't possible then they took their system, broke it down and reformed it for an ultimate habitation on a fantastic scale maybe because they can never leave.
If they do have star travel, they quite possibly know we're here and are either very subtle or observing or don't care.
Far too early to tell. But it couldn't be a Dyson sphere, as we would not be able to see the sun. Likewise it's not a ringworld because that would provide continuous coverage.
COULD be multiple habitats, or maybe they had an abundance of large asteroids/small moons in their system and they decided to move them around to new locations.
Maybe it is an alien civilization... but like us they've yet to figure out how to break the FTL barrier. And I doubt they would know about us yet. We have negligible orbital footprints and we haven't had radio long enough for a signal to reach that far.
As far as they might be concerned we're juts another nobody planet.
COULD be multiple habitats, or maybe they had an abundance of large asteroids/small moons in their system and they decided to move them around to new locations.
Maybe it is an alien civilization... but like us they've yet to figure out how to break the FTL barrier. And I doubt they would know about us yet. We have negligible orbital footprints and we haven't had radio long enough for a signal to reach that far.
As far as they might be concerned we're juts another nobody planet.
alex_greene said:
Fire up the starship, I'm ready to go. I don't think our radio signals will reach it though, they attenuate after a few light years. It could also be like in PF Hamilton's Pandora's Star, another species encapsulating another to keep them blocked in; hello Morning Light Mountain.
As far as I know, in order to encapsulate a star you'd need the ability to directly convert energy into matter, or else have the ability to convert matter at the atomic level to break it down and reconvert into something else (i.e. silica rocks into sphere plating and reinforcements).
A single star system simply doesn't have enough raw materials in it to build a Dyson sphere. Even assuming it did that would mean they have or are in the process of cannibalizing every gas giant, planet and rock in the system into the sphere.
It would be more realistic to think that they'd be raiding other systems for raw materials, at least until they are forced to dismantle their own planet(s). And if they could do that, then who knows, maybe they ARE already amongst us.
Let's hope that a intergalatic throughway isn't in our near future.
A single star system simply doesn't have enough raw materials in it to build a Dyson sphere. Even assuming it did that would mean they have or are in the process of cannibalizing every gas giant, planet and rock in the system into the sphere.
It would be more realistic to think that they'd be raiding other systems for raw materials, at least until they are forced to dismantle their own planet(s). And if they could do that, then who knows, maybe they ARE already amongst us.
Let's hope that a intergalatic throughway isn't in our near future.
