Scientists find 60 stars that may be surrounded by ‘alien mega-structures’
After analysing five million distant solar systems, researchers have identified 60 stars that may be enveloped by colossal extraterrestrial power plants.
A groundbreaking survey of five million distant solar systems has identified 60 stars that may be enveloped by colossal extraterrestrial ‘power plants’.
The study, conducted by astronomers utilising sophisticated ‘neural network’ algorithms, which was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, found seven of the stars – known as M-Dwarfs and ranging from 60 per cent to 8 per cent the size of our Sun – exhibited unexpectedly high infrared “heat signatures”.
This infrared excess cannot be easily explained by known cosmic phenomena, according to the researchers.
The concept of these massive energy collectors was first posited by physicist Freeman Dyson at Princeton in 1960.
He theorised advanced civilisations might constructed large-scale solar energy collectors, known as ‘Dyson Spheres’, around stars to harness their energy.
These structures would emit more heat than typical stars, making them detectable.
Astrophysicists refer to such indicators of advanced technology as “technosignatures”.
These can range from colossal engineering projects like Dyson Spheres to simpler signs such as pollution from technological activities, which can be detected across vast distances.
The latest search for technosignatures was spearheaded by teams led by Matías Suazo from Uppsala University in Sweden and Gaby Contardo from the International School for Advanced Studies in Italy.
They combined data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope, and the ground-based 2MASS infrared survey.
Suazo’s team discovered that the seven M-dwarf stars, located within 900 light-years from Earth, were emitting up to 60 times more infrared heat than expected.
The researchers estimated between 3 per cent and 16 per cent of each star’s light might be blocked by some form of energy-collecting technology to account for this infrared excess.
Research team member Jason Wright, an astrophysicist at Pennsylvania State University, said: “This isn't like a single solid shell around the star.”
Instead, the stars could be surrounded by a ‘Dyson Swarm’ – a fleet of energy-collecting satellites orbiting them.
Further analysis is necessary to confirm the true nature of these infrared sources, the researchers concluded, leaving open the possibility they may have found evidence of advanced extraterrestrial technology.
