Space
Why we still have not met aliens: scientists put forward a new hypothesis
Scientists have long been concerned about the question of why humanity is not visited by aliens? Recently, two researchers decided to answer it and put forward an unusual hypothesis: developed civilizations simply stopped their development, or died. The scientists published their findings in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
A new hypothesis suggests that as alien civilizations grow and develop technologically, they eventually reach a crisis point where innovation can no longer keep up with energy demand. Further there will be a collapse.
The only reasonable way is to abandon the “steady growth” model in favor of maintaining balance. In this case, civilization will lose the opportunity to travel to other stars, the researchers say.
Scientists came to such conclusions when they studied the process of urban growth. These studies have shown that cities increase in size and energy consumption at an exponential rate as their population grows, inevitably leading to crisis points, or singularities, that lead to rapid disruptions in growth, followed by an even more rapid, civilization-terminating collapse.
“We hypothesize that once a civilization transitions into what can be described as one practically connected global city, it will experience ‘asymptotic burnout’, an ultimate crisis where the time scale of the singularity interval becomes smaller than the time scale of innovation,” they wrote.
Civilizations that are close to collapse will be the easiest for humanity to detect, the researchers suggest, as they will dissipate a large amount of energy.
This means that humanity will be the first to discover intelligent life, but as yet underdeveloped, the researchers write.
To prevent their death, civilizations may refuse to travel to other stars for the sake of social welfare, the researchers suggest. Although such civilizations will not be able to completely abandon space exploration, they will not expand on a scale large enough to make contact with the Earth.
The scientists emphasize that their proposal is a conventional hypothesis, taken from observation of the laws that seem to govern life on Earth.
Recently, a group of experts from Harvard University, led by physics
professor Avi Loeb, announced the possible presence of alien space
debris in Earth’s orbit, reports the Daily Star.
Leading
space research expert Professor Loeb is confident that the discovery of
such “interstellar objects could help expand our knowledge of possible
alien civilizations and technologies. A team of scientists is conducting
research to confirm that some of the objects in our orbit may be
connected to other star systems.
During an interview with Live
Science, Professor Loeb explained that these objects could enter the
solar system from interstellar space, defying Jupiter’s gravitational
pull and occupying limited orbits around the sun.
Some of them may
have technological origins similar to the probes sent by mankind into
interstellar space, such as Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, Pioneer 10 and 11
and New Horizons.
However,
despite these interesting assumptions, Professor Loeb did not specify
what specific objects he was talking about. In his research report, he
notes that there could be “a significant number” of potentially
detectable objects in Earth’s orbit.
To confirm their assumptions,
the team of scientists uses computer simulations and the Vera Rubin
Observatory (Chile) with a high-resolution camera of 3.2 billion pixels.
This will allow for regular observations of the Southern sky and the
possibility of detecting several captured objects about the size of a
football field.
It is assumed that these interstellar objects passed through the
boundaries of the solar system and may carry unique information about
other civilizations and their technologies. If we could confirm the
origin of these objects, the mysteries that open before us, this would
be a real breakthrough in space exploration.
Professor Loeb
expresses hope that the new research will not only help expand our
knowledge of extraterrestrial technologies, but may also lead to the
discovery of new alien civilizations . Answers to such questions can be
of global significance and influence our understanding of the place of
mankind in the Universe.
And
while there are still many questions and assumptions, the study by
Professor Loeb and his team opens a new chapter in space exploration.
Each new discovery can be the key to deciphering the mysteries of the
cosmos and the possibility of encountering alien life forms.
Betelgeuse, a red giant on the brink of death, continues to show
unusual behavior. After the Great Blackout, which occurred in late 2019
and early 2020, the star became unusually bright. It is now the seventh
brightest star in the sky, while it normally ranks tenth. This has led
to speculation that Betelgeuse is preparing to explode in a
spectacularly large supernova.
However, scientists believe it’s too early to tell, and it’s likely
that this behavior is due to ongoing fluctuations after the Great
Blackout of 2019, and the star will return to normal within a decade.
Betelgeuse is one of the most interesting stars in the sky. It is
about 700 light-years from Earth and is a red giant in the last stage of
its life. It is also an unusual star for a red giant because it was
previously a monster blue-white O-type star, the most massive class of
stars.
Betelgeuse has changed its spectral type because it has almost
exhausted its hydrogen reserves. It now burns helium into carbon and
oxygen and has expanded to a gigantic size: about 764 times the size of
the Sun and about 16.5 to 19 times its mass.
Eventually it will run out of fuel to burn, become a supernova, eject
its outer material, and its core will collapse into a neutron star.
Before the Great Blackout, Betelgeuse also had periodic fluctuations
in brightness. The longest of these cycles is about 5.9 years and the
other is 400 days. But it seems that the Great Blackout caused changes
in these oscillations.
A new paper by astrophysicist Morgan McLeod of the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has shown that the 400-day
cycle appears to have been halved. This pulsational cycle is probably
caused by expansion and contraction within the star. According to
simulations carried out by MacLeod and his colleagues, the convective
flow inside Betelgeuse may have risen and become material that separates
from the star.
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