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No need to worry, but alien megastructures spotted in a distant star

Oh yeah, most definitely they want it to be true. But they certainly respect their careers enough to not lead with that theory until they have overwhelming evidence.
 
So why would the aliens drag a bunch of comets to their star? Just doesn't make any sense and is no fun. Cav's expert theory on theories states that if a theory doesn't meet those 2 qualifications, forget about it until you are proven wrong by hard evidence.

That the comets get there by themselves can therefore definitely be ignored.

What I like about this is any theory won't be proven wrong for a very long time.

Edit: I got it, the comets are used as building materials for more cool stuff to wonder about.

Maybe its a movie set full of false fronts for the making of spacey movies. They are advanced so maybe they need it to make Star Wars 23,574. The comets could be there for the obligatory comet belt battle scene.
 
What I like about this is any theory won't be proven wrong for a very long time.
I think a bunch of REALLY huge telescopes are being built right now to enter service in next years. We could get new info very soon.

Anyway imagine observations confirm the alien theory, would such new be aired?
 
Well, it's likely telescopes are being aligned as we speak. SETI will likely put some time on that star. As well, various lower-cost telescopes will start examining it. That said, it might need something uber-powerful to get really good data, but reasonable data about the star will start trickling in over a few years too.
 
Why wouldn't such news be aired?
Unpredictable people reaction? We humans are used to think of ourselves as the non plus ultra of creation, starting with all religions. With such superaliens there we would be relegated to simple bugs, many people may find such idea unbearable.
 
So just make bigger and better telescopes and see what it is?
 
Actually, it will be more 'focus existing telescopes'. Kepler was a specific mission, to find interesting stars.

If you really want to help, run seti@home on your BOINC platform
 
Big enough to see planets, space debris and alien mega structures? Now we can only tell if we're in the shadow of something, and apparently whether that something is round or space alien mega structure shaped. To go from that to actually seeing a space alien mega structure..."Yup, I can see the fins and count the little green guys." Long time.

I think my expert theories are safe until the colony ship is rather close, and by then I'll be doing whatever comes after this life. Maybe building mega ships and laughing about those crude Earthlings still in their crib looking out with toys. :dunno:
 
That's not that far away.... And we got about 1,500 years before they spot our radio signals.
15 light years is super far. No human will ever travel even a light week (to put into perspective the moon is a little over a light second away).
 
Did a light week last week, planning on a light month at this point. A light year is definitely in the cards.
 
Believing it's an alien megastructure is problematic for this reason, an advanced technology race capable of such resource management would certainly have been emitting identifiable traces of communication in all directions at the very least for the last period of 1500 of our years. If SETI focuses directly to the region of space, if SETI finds nothing unnatural, it's reasonable to conclude nothing unnatural was emitting such signals during a period of "1500 Earth years ago". To believe an intelligent species went from "zero signal" to "dyson sphere" in a period relative to (rounded off) 4.7billion "durations" of 9192631770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom is unreasonable, at best.

Did I do that math correctly? Wouldn't we be aware of other activity in this period, like, I dunno, transmissions from the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of vehicles necessary to manipulate such amounts of mass? Wouldn't it look like a "holy $^%@" flood of communication, sticking out like a sore thumb? Even had "they" not been building such a structure for the last 1500 Earth years, wouldn't we, by now, be seeing evidence of "their" attempts at interstellar communication and travel?

I have to admit, though, it would be funny as hell if, one day, SETI publishes this intercepted transmission.



I'm pretty sure a dyson sphere this close is fantasy.

edit: Some more food for thought on what we call "signals".
http://www.setileague.org/askdr/hydrogen.htm

Also, the fact we should allow for variance without intelligent source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution

And we don't even "see" much of that.

Yes, I know it wouldn't translate as music, much less the imperial theme. That was humor.
 
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Why would it have to emit radio waves or other signals so "loudly" (brightly?) that we would be able to pick it up here? Emitting extremely strong radio waves in all directions is inefficient and indicates they aren't directing them very well. It is likely that a more advanced civilization will be markedly more efficient in its communications than we are, and given the inverse square law, even rather loud radio communications should be hard for us to detect from 1500 ly away.
 
Why would it have to emit radio waves or other signals so "loudly" (brightly?) that we would be able to pick it up here? Emitting extremely strong radio waves in all directions is inefficient and indicates they aren't directing them very well. It is likely that a more advanced civilization will be markedly more efficient in its communications than we are, and given the inverse square law, even rather loud radio communications should be hard for us to detect from 1500 ly away.

I'd agree to a point if there weren't so very many signals in a hypothetical multi-star-system level of technology. Or are we to presume a race can reach the technological level of star harnessing without interstellar travel?

Also I agree we probably shouldn't be picking up alien grocery lists on shortwave radio. I guess I kinda got carried away in free form thought I typed out to insinuate we'd make out details, but we likely would see evidence of something "super high tech" in the background ambient "hydrogen noise" with modern telescopes, and we "see" very little; so little that the "wow signal" is actually still a thing, when in all likelihood it was very natural.

Maybe you could convince me 1420MHz isn't simply what we think it is, but also "polluted" with interstellar "construction noise" of intelligent design. I could talk about that.
 
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Why would it have to emit radio waves or other signals so "loudly" (brightly?) that we would be able to pick it up here? Emitting extremely strong radio waves in all directions is inefficient and indicates they aren't directing them very well. It is likely that a more advanced civilization will be markedly more efficient in its communications than we are, and given the inverse square law, even rather loud radio communications should be hard for us to detect from 1500 ly away.

Iam kinda worried about the dark forest theory, but its more likely that advanced civilizations has gone purely digital
Both theories explain the Femi paradox
 
It's not just "radio waves" or other signal intentionally sent. There's a matter of disruption in what we take to be the background ambient noise of the cosmos. If someone decided to detonate a big hydrogen bomb past the distance of the moon, for example, in an secret experiment to try to "blow up an asteroid" or some such, we would "see that" on radio telescopes. Honestly, I don't see how that's "not" an option in considering the source of the "wow signal". Russians at one time wanted to blow up the back side of the moon just to study the material that came streaming from it, why wouldn't they blow up a space rock. US gov't sources moved to silence speculation on the "wow signal", maybe we caught somebody doing something they weren't supposed to do.
 
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So when do we send the stupid message telling them how wonderful we are and how good we have it here?

To a bunch of self involved suckers getting on an alien ship, shouted by a skeptic... "How to Serve Man, its a cook book!" - Outer Limits iirc.

It was The Twilight Zone, actually
 
The intention of your post hitting the target.

Alright, here you go: Sometimes, I wipe my ass and there are stains on it. Not brown stains. But red stains. But why?

Two words: Hot. Sauce.
 
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