Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' orbiting a star in the Milky Way

[Streetwind]

http://www.space.com/32864-alien-megastructure-star-telescope-changes.html

TL;DR: Scientists now think that the continuous dimming the star exhibited over the past 100 years is actually not real, but an artifact introduced by changes in instrumentation. They went back to historic data and found that other stars imaged back then also showed higher brightness than they do when examined today. In fact, there were so many of them that the by far most likely explanation is that switching to a new generation of more precise measuring instruments corrected a systematic error inherent in most older surveys.

Note: this does not explain away the strange and drastic brightness dips that Kepler observed. It only addresses the odd brightness difference between old and current observations that was found after Kepler's data made waves, and people started examining historic material.

[magnemoe]

On 2.5.2016 at 5:50 AM, PB666 said:

Don't get so excited, let the scientist do their job, aside from that we think a dyson like sphere would be the best way of making lots of power, in a 100 years that could be a quaint silly idea.

I see two places / distances to put an dyson swarm. One is close in where you can get away with smaller solar panels for the power, bodies for raw materials are also important so we would use Mercury even if not in optimal distance. This is nice for beamed power for stuff who need loads of power like laser powered solar sail and melting asteroids. 

The other is in the orbit of the planet. This is better for industrial use and orbital habitats. You would start with structures in orbit around you own planet and move to solar orbit as the planetary orbit get to crowded in the same orbit as the planet keep travel and communication time constant 

[PB666]

5 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

I see two places / distances to put an dyson swarm. One is close in where you can get away with smaller solar panels for the power, bodies for raw materials are also important so we would use Mercury even if not in optimal distance. This is nice for beamed power for stuff who need loads of power like laser powered solar sail and melting asteroids. 

The other is in the orbit of the planet. This is better for industrial use and orbital habitats. You would start with structures in orbit around you own planet and move to solar orbit as the planetary orbit get to crowded in the same orbit as the planet keep travel and communication time constant 

The L1 of earth to mitigate the effects of global warming. you could use freinal lenses to power up the poles of the moon. 

[Darnok]

What if those are debris from Dyson sphere?

Short scenario... one civilization starting to build Dyson sphere, second civilization notices it and is starting war... first civilization loses war.

[magnemoe]

On 13.5.2016 at 2:09 PM, PB666 said:

The L1 of earth to mitigate the effects of global warming. you could use freinal lenses to power up the poles of the moon. 

Global warming would hardly be an issue at this stage, heat pollution is likely to be an problem, they use lots more energy than the energy of the sunlight hitting the planet. 
yes most is used in space but it would always be an pressure to use more on the planet so dimming the sun would let them get away with more. 

[Findthepin1]

6 hours ago, Darnok said:

What if those are debris from Dyson sphere?

Short scenario... one civilization starting to build Dyson sphere, second civilization notices it and is starting war... first civilization loses war.

Might as well be comets in that case. Debris either way. Plus, it's really hard to destroy a Dyson sphere, given that it must be made of a really strong material to withstand tidal forces in its orbit. 

[Andem]

10 minutes ago, Findthepin1 said:

Might as well be comets in that case. Debris either way. Plus, it's really hard to destroy a Dyson sphere, given that it must be made of a really strong material to withstand tidal forces in its orbit. 

Unless It's actually a Dyson swarm, in that case It would collapse before humans could even start an interstellar journey.

[Darnok]

12 hours ago, Findthepin1 said:

Might as well be comets in that case. Debris either way. Plus, it's really hard to destroy a Dyson sphere, given that it must be made of a really strong material to withstand tidal forces in its orbit. 

If someone wouldn't fear to attack civilization able to building sphere, I am sure he would have weapon capable to destroy it

Other case they could attack while sphere was under construction.

Edited May 15, 2016 by Darnok

[PB666]

5 hours ago, Darnok said:

If someone wouldn't fear to attack civilization able to build sphere I am sure he would have weapon capable to destroy it

Other case they could attack while sphere was under construction.

If a dyson sphere existed and you struck with the largest bomb you coukd dream of it would take a thouasnd years for the bomb to destroy, in the meantime you have made some bees very angry at you. 

[Darnok]

25 minutes ago, PB666 said:

If a dyson sphere existed and you struck with the largest bomb you coukd dream of it would take a thouasnd years for the bomb to destroy, in the meantime you have made some bees very angry at you. 

You are ignoring fact that sphere has to be in balance for not being destroyed by forces... so all you need is to shake it a bit and sphere will shatter into pieces.

[magnemoe]

11 hours ago, Andem said:

Unless It's actually a Dyson swarm, in that case It would collapse before humans could even start an interstellar journey.

Why, an dyson swarm is stable unlike an sphere who would have to be build of an impossible strong material just not to fall apart. 
A swarm can be build over an long time and is useful and stable all the time, 
Personaly I think that its aliens its an groups of huge objects in the plane of the planet, think habitates and factories surrounded by an solar cell array such an structure could easy be gigantic. 

 

[PB666]

1 hour ago, Darnok said:

You are ignoring fact that sphere has to be in balance for not being destroyed by forces... so all you need is to shake it a bit and sphere will shatter into pieces.

Equilibrium is not reached immediately, it would take a long time, the destabilization wave would not immediately atomize the structure, 

If you take an eathworm and cut it in half, you dont have a dead earthworm, you simply have two smaller eartworms. If you take a long strip and shake one iend as to break pieces off in a wave, what you will do is break pieces at a flexibikity limit, a good dyson belt  would simply have a stabikizer and have the pieces reform into the original shape in anticipation of the gap filling structures. 

[Darnok]

58 minutes ago, PB666 said:

Equilibrium is not reached immediately, it would take a long time, the destabilization wave would not immediately atomize the structure, 

If you take an eathworm and cut it in half, you dont have a dead earthworm, you simply have two smaller eartworms. If you take a long strip and shake one iend as to break pieces off in a wave, what you will do is break pieces at a flexibikity limit, a good dyson belt  would simply have a stabikizer and have the pieces reform into the original shape in anticipation of the gap filling structures. 

Right because you know how to build Dyson sphere... if civilization can build this sphere it is also able to destroy it in very efficient way.

[PB666]

35 minutes ago, Darnok said:

Right because you know how to build Dyson sphere... if civilization can build this sphere it is also able to destroy it in very efficient way.

For an alien species to completely destroy a dyson syapstem would require 10000 times the energy to build it, and the resources aren't gone and the dyson builders would be builiding as you tear it. You have to transport the energy from your system the the target system. 

[Darnok]

10 minutes ago, PB666 said:

For an alien species to completely destroy a dyson syapstem would require 10000 times the energy to build it, and the resources aren't gone and the dyson builders would be builiding as you tear it. You have to transport the energy from your system the the target system. 

What kind of weapon you are talking about?

[insert_name]

21 minutes ago, PB666 said:

For an alien species to completely destroy a dyson syapstem would require 10000 times the energy to build it, and the resources aren't gone and the dyson builders would be builiding as you tear it. You have to transport the energy from your system the the target system. 

not only that but the moment the attack is detected the civilization with the dyson sphere fires off several relativistic kill vehicles to take care of the attacking civilization

[Darnok]

6 minutes ago, insert_name said:

not only that but the moment the attack is detected the civilization with the dyson sphere fires off several relativistic kill vehicles to take care of the attacking civilization

Nobody is going to star war against stronger opponent... unless he is totally stupid.

[insert_name]

41 minutes ago, Darnok said:

Nobody is going to star war against stronger opponent... unless he is totally stupid.

which is exactly why no one would attack a civ with a dyson sphere unless they had more dyson spheres, which based on our observations they do not

[PB666]

40 minutes ago, insert_name said:

which is exactly why no one would attack a civ with a dyson sphere unless they had more dyson spheres, which based on our observations they do not

Darnok is secretly building cloked dyson spheres, two fantasy technologies combined to create one mega fantasy. 

BTW one could hide a sphere by simply piping the waste enegy to flow +/-  out of the galactic plane. About as illogical as a dyson sphere construction. 

[Andem]

5 hours ago, magnemoe said:

Why, an dyson swarm is stable unlike an sphere who would have to be build of an impossible strong material just not to fall apart. 
A swarm can be build over an long time and is useful and stable all the time, 
Personaly I think that its aliens its an groups of huge objects in the plane of the planet, think habitates and factories surrounded by an solar cell array such an structure could easy be gigantic. 

 

Well, a Dyson Swarm isn't as practicle as one would think. I would imagine that the entire solar system doesn't have the recources to construct a complete dyson swarm, and interstellar travel to gather the recources to maintain and complete it could potentially snuff out the species that attempted to build it. by the time humans could have arrived, the Entire swarm could have potentially fallen apart and formed an debris belt.

[insert_name]

1 hour ago, PB666 said:

Darnok is secretly building cloked dyson spheres, two fantasy technologies combined to create one mega fantasy. 

BTW one could hide a sphere by simply piping the waste enegy to flow +/-  out of the galactic plane. About as illogical as a dyson sphere construction. 

Or maybe they have cold fusion using unicorn farts as fuel

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, Andem said:

Well, a Dyson Swarm isn't as practicle as one would think. I would imagine that the entire solar system doesn't have the recources to construct a complete dyson swarm, and interstellar travel to gather the recources to maintain and complete it could potentially snuff out the species that attempted to build it. by the time humans could have arrived, the Entire swarm could have potentially fallen apart and formed an debris belt.

No its not very practical, an full swarm would also be pretty much overkill, as said you put this in orbit of the planet first. Then this is getting too crowded your best option is to put more solar panels close to the sun and in an tilted orbit so it don't cast to much shadow on the main ring. 
Inner structure would be energy collection only and its no need to have it huge sized or centralized, benefit of having it spread out is that the shadow effect on the planetary orbit could be ignored, stupid if it caused blackout.  

How is the estimated orbit of the blocking object compared to the goldilock zone? 
 

[Aethon]

A Kickstarter project  is in the works to secure time on the   Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network  to observe Tabbys' Star.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=35658

Tabbys' Star for the perplexed.  https://disownedsky.blogspot.com/2016/02/tabbys-star-for-perplexed.html

 

[Aethon]

On 5/13/2016 at 3:51 AM, Streetwind said:

Scientists now think that the continuous dimming the star exhibited over the past 100 years is actually not real, but an artifact introduced by changes in instrumentation.

 

Bradley Schaefer defends his claim that Tabbys' star has faded by about 20% from 1890 to 1989.

 

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=35666

Edited May 25, 2016 by Aethon

[Aethon]

Study detects Tabby's star dimming during the Kepler mission.

 

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=36081

http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.01316

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/outthere/2016/07/31/alien-megastructure-star/#.V6TTjDsrK5h