64 Nearby Stars Have ‘Alien Megastructures’ Around Them and May Be Visible From Earth
Two years ago astronomers discovered a star, known as KIC 8462852 or Tabby’s Star, which mysteriously brightened and dimmed.
The phenomenon baffled experts and several theories emerged including one that suggested the “blinking” may have be cause by a rotating alien megastructure, known as a Dyson Sphere, which intermittently blocked the star’s light.
Professor Zaza Osmanov, from the Free University of Tbilisi, Georgia, has backed the theory and has now claimed that the alien megastructure could easily be seen with current technology – including the European Southern Observatory’s Very large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI).
NASA’S infrared and ultraviolet footage of the KIC 8462852 star known as Tabby’s Star
Mr Osmanov also alleged that these megastructures could be orbiting up to 64 nearby stars.
In an earlier paper, Mr Osmanov suggested that alien megastructures were most likely made up of multiple thin discs rather than “spherical shells”.
In his latest report, the Professor calculated that these structures would fall within Tabby’s Star’s “habitable zone” – which is the orbital region around a sun where a planet can possess life-giving water.
Mr Osmanov said: “It is clear that such cosmic megastructures require enormous material to construct them. For avoiding this difficulty, recently we have proposed a certain extension of Dyson’s idea.
“Such a megastructure would require less material than in case of spheres. It is clear that such rings might be significantly perturbed by tidal stresses in terms of strong centrifugal outflows and radiation.
“Therefore, they cannot be stable and sooner or later gravitation will inevitably destabilise the construction.”
An artist’s impression of a Dyson Sphere
He added: “The search for the ring-like megastructures around slowly spinning pulsars seen in the infrared spectrum might be quite promising.”
But the if the alien megastructures are found, Mr Osmanov has warned they would be extremely powerful.
He said: “Rapidly rotating pulsars are very powerful and harvesting their energy would be quite profitable, but a habitable zone would be much farther and mass of a material required for constructing the mega-ring would exceed the total mass of all planets, asteroids, comets, centaurs and interplanetary dust in a typical planetary system by several orders of magnitude.”
NICOLE STINSON
Express UK
