In the more than sixty years in which scientists are involved in search of extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), several potential examples of technological activities (“technosignatures”) were considered. While most SETI surveys have so far focused on potential radio signals from distant sources, scientists have expanded the search to search for other possible examples. This includes other forms of communication (directed energy, neutrinos, gravitational waves, etc.) and examples of megastructures (Dyson balls, Clarke bands, Nive rings, etc.)
Examples of modern search queries are Project Hephaistos, the first Swedish project dedicated to SETI. This project is named in honor of the Greek god of the smithy of Schmiede and focuses on the search for techno signatures in general instead of looking for signals that are deliberately sent to Earth. In a recently carried out work, a team led by the University of Manchester examined a Dyson Sphere candidate identified by Hephaistos. Their results confirmed that at least some of these radio sources are contaminated by an active galactic core (AGN) of the background.
The team was founded by Tongtian Ren, Ph.D. Student in astrophysics from the Jodrell Bank Center for astrophysics at the University of Manchester. He was accompanied by Prof. Michael Garrett, his superior at the University of Manchester, the suffering of the observatory and the Institute for Space Sciences and Astronomy at the University of Malta. and Andrew Siemion, Associate Research Astronom at the Berkeley Seti Research Center, the SETI Institute and the University of Oxford. The paper that describes its results recently appeared in the monthly information of the Royal Astronomical Society.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnfaQrr58sy
Dyson balls are a class of mega structures that were originally proposed by physicist Freemon Dyson, which suggested how advanced civilizations could create structures that are big enough to include their stars (thus use all of their energy). Project Hephaestos under the direction of Prof. Erik Zackrisson has published numerous articles in which possible candidates for Dyson -Sphere were examined using various methods and data sources. The fourth and recent work of the series focused on seven potential candidates (described A to G) by M-stars from a sample of 5 million, which were discovered by the GAIA observatory of the ESA.
Previously, Ren and his team examined these candidates to identify possible natural explanations. Since they examined themselves in an earlier article, these dust areas include deer disks that absorb light and resume them as infrared radiation. This will lead to an observed infrared surplus that Dyson suggested as a possible indication of his proposed mega structure. However, as you show in your latest article, the measurements of the project do not seem to resemble typical rubble slices. As Garrett explained to the universe by e -mail today:
“When I saw the original results of Project Hephaestos last year, I was skeptical – they had examined 5 million stars, and if they do this, there is a good chance that their measurements emission from background sources. You do not expect stars to show radio emission at this level, and it basically shows that radio emission probably comes from background galaxies (radio). But then you also need a special kind of galaxy, which in the optical but very bright in the infrared – the only galaxies that I knew this feature was dogs, very bright – dust -covered galaxies. “
The team was also found by another article by Jason T. Wright, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State, the director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSEI), and member of the Center for Exoplanet and Restible Worlds (Cehw) inspired). In this article, Wright made the hypothesis that a real Dyson ball could possibly use radio emissions to unload waste heat. This meant that they looked at the possibility that these candidates were actually Dyson balls.
The impression of the artist of a bright, very early active galactic core. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/B. Saxton
As Tongtian explained, they were also inspired by earlier research from Garrett:
“Mike argued in 2015 that even in a Kardashev civilization, in which energy consumption is significantly higher than that of people on earth, their radio communication signals are too weak to determine. However, the Dyson balls could correspond to a Kardashev civilization -one that uses more energy over a billion dollar subject than a civilization of Type I. Regardless of whether the beings are located on planets or elsewhere, it may be possible to determine the use of similar electromagnetic technologies. “
In order to further examine these options, the team searched for data from the extended multi-element radio-linked interferometer knife (E-Merlin) and the European VLBI network (EVN) for data on the brightest radio source (candidate G) were preserved. To their surprise, they found that three candidates from Project Hephaesto's Radio colleagues had in the astronomy databases. As Tongtian explained, the most logical explanation is that these signals (including candidates G) can be attributed to the contamination of light radio sources – active galactic cores (AGN) – in the background:
“You shouldn't belong to civilization. Otherwise, many anomal stars would be connected as a crush in the sky, not seven. At that moment we have found that either various extraterrestrial civilizations that were hundreds of light years have all mastered the same or similar advanced radio emission technologies, or these signals come from a form of natural contamination. We preferred to assume that they were some natural objects that go beyond the Milky Way – and most likely hot dogs. “
These results effectively confirm their earlier hypothesis that at least some of the candidates identified by Hephaisto's projects are contaminated by bright radio sources, which are also very bright in the infrared wavelength. As a result, you can expect the features that Freeman Dyson predicted and expect the astronomers of Dyson balls. However, this does not exclude the remaining six candidates and underlines how important it is to thoroughly analyze every candidate with high -resolution radio observations.
The artist's impression of a Dyson ball, a mega structure associated with a civilization of Type II. Credit: sentientdevelopments.com
“We don't know that all candidates are contaminated, but some, maybe everyone, probably. I really hope that some of them are indeed good Dyson Sphere candidates, ”said Garrett. “All of this shows that when looking for candidates, a multi -wave length is required to exclude the contamination of background contamination.”
“The development of new astronomical instruments does not follow the fast update cycles of consumer electronics – it takes decades,” added Tongian. “GAIA (in 2013 and recently taken out) and Wise (introduced in 2009 and expired in 2024) provided a crucial observation window. The next generation of similar probes may not have been available for a long time, so it is unlikely that a large Dyson-Speke search program such as Project Hephaistos will be carried out again in the near future. The current seven -dyson -sphere candidates deserve carefully examined. “
Further reading: Arxiv, Mnras
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