Space
Physicists figured out how to search for alien ships in the Universe
Most of the methods for searching for extraterrestrial civilizations are built around the detection of specific electromagnetic radiation.
They are looking for characteristic changes in the luminosity of stars, either their special spectrum, or the simplest – radio waves that differ from natural sources. American physicists proposed to expand the range of instruments used at the expense of gravitational wave detectors.
The notorious Fermi paradox worries not only ufologists and futurologists, but also full-fledged scientists. There are too many indications that life in the universe cannot be a unique earthly phenomenon.
At the same time, until now, humanity has not met a single evidence of other intelligent civilizations. One of the hypotheses is that our tools are not good enough or not properly configured to find them, therefore, it is necessary to come up with new methods.
Or find new ways to use tools already in the arsenal of astrophysicists. For example, gravitational wave observatories. The logic is as follows: if a highly developed civilization wants to travel on the scale of the galaxy, sooner or later it will build a giant or fast spaceship.
Perhaps both huge and fast at the same time. And where there is a large mass, or accelerations up to speeds of units or even tens of percent of the speed of light, there arise fluctuations in space-time. Which we call gravitational waves.
A huge plus of gravitational wave detectors as tools for searching for extraterrestrial civilizations is their field of view. Unlike optical or radio telescopes, which have an extremely narrow “field of view”, gravitational wave detectors “look” at the entire sky at once.
Several physicists from leading American universities and scientific organizations have considered this idea in detail. Their detailed calculations can be found on the portal of preliminary publications (preprints) arXiv.
The calculations in this work show that the most sensitive of the existing gravitational wave detectors – ground-based interferometers LIGO , VIRGO and KAGRA – allow you to detect alien ships within a radius of up to one hundred kiloparsecs from Earth (326,156 light years).
That is, far beyond the Milky Way, whose diameter is only 105.7 thousand light years. True, alien ships should have a mass of about ten Jupiters and accelerate to 10% of the speed of light.
The minimum detection threshold with the available instruments is an object with a mass of approximately Mercury, accelerating to a comparable speed. It will be possible to detect it already within a radius of “only” 32 light years – in the vicinity of the stars closest to the Sun.
A colossal mass of rapidly accelerating ships ( RAMAcraft ) is not a fantastic assumption. Even traveling between neighboring stars within a reasonable amount of time requires huge amounts of working fluid. Nobody canceled Newton’s laws.
And if we are talking about civilizations that can colonize a significant part of the galaxy, then they will most likely need ships that transport entire populations within a lifetime of a few generations.
Alternative modes of transportation like “warp technology” and the Alcubierre Bubble make things easier. The mass of ships built on their basis will also be huge – a few or tens of Jupiterian ones, but the speed of movement is higher.
In addition, the very principle of their work implies the curvature of space-time, and hence the creation of gravitational waves. Such objects should be detectable at even greater distances.
In addition, in the coming years, the creation of even more sensitive gravitational-wave observatories will begin – the space Big Bang Observer and DECIGO . With their help, the search efficiency will increase by an order of magnitude.
But there is a problem: you need to know what to look for. It is likely that human instruments have already recorded traces of alien ships flying across the Milky Way, we just did not distinguish them from natural sources. A whole section of the described scientific work is devoted to methods of data analysis.
It is possible that in the foreseeable future, researchers looking for extraterrestrial civilizations will have incredible amounts of data to study. If the scientific community, of course, agrees with the proposed theses. From the outside, they look more than reasonable.
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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