Is there an alien sphere

E.t. can harvest energy from black holes.

A conceptual illustration of the Dyson Dyson sphere

Skilled aliens could use a putative giant structure called a Dyson sphere to harvest energy from the black hole and give their society the power to move forward. A new study suggests that spheres radiate in such a way that Earth-based telescopes can spot intelligent life somewhere in the universe.

According to Live Science's Sister Site Space.com (Live Science's Sister Site Space.com), a Dyson Dyson sphere is a speculative structure that orbits a star in a tight orbit to capture starlight and generate energy. The idea, first proposed in 1960 by the theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, could be realized by an alien species in outer space that would need increasing amounts of energy to populate its star system.

During a coffee break, the Tsinghua astronomer and his colleagues read a paper on Dyson Dyson spheres, and the colleagues began to wonder if it might be possible to build a black hole around a black hole, rather than around a star. "Black holes are some of the brightest objects in the sky," he told SciDev.net. He added: "Although we normally think of black holes as dark and very energy-consuming, black holes can radiate amazing amounts of energy.

When matter falls into the vortex of a black hole, it usually forms a disk, much like water circulating in a drainage pipe." "As gas and dust in the disk spin and collide with each other, the black hole is heated by friction, sometimes to millions of degrees, producing light in the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum," he said. Huge beams of energy can also shoot out of the black hole's poles." "Because black holes suck a huge amount of mass into a very small area, they're smaller than stars and therefore easier to surround.

Species that are thus chosen to build Dyson Dyson spheres around black holes could save a lot of material, "he continued. Tomotsugu Goto, a Japanese co-author of the study and a researcher at National Tsing Hua University, told Live Science. Aliens could place large satellites in stable orbits around black holes and then use something like a solar panel to collect X-rays to release the emitted energy. Goto added that they might also build a ring around the black hole, or a complete platform around the black hole, as Freeman Dyson originally proposed, although each would be complex and difficult to build.

"In either case, the black hole radiates about 100,000 times more energy than a star of the magnitude of the Sun, implying that an alien celestial species would have a lot of energy to harness it," the researchers wrote in a paper published July 1 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

After being absorbed and used, the energy of a cosmic object must be re-radiated, or it will accumulate and eventually melt the Dyson sphere. These scientists, Dyson, all made these points in a 1960 paper. This energy is transferred to longer wavelengths, so the Dyson Dyson spheroids around the black hole could signal unexplained energy in ultraviolet or infrared light, the researchers said.

Several instruments, including NASA's space-based Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Hawaii's Pan-Star Pan-StarRS telescope, cataloged billions of objects in their detailed surveys of the night sky, Goto said. He added that if Dyson spheroids do exist around black holes, then these detectors may have recorded their signal.

The team is developing algorithms to search through these databases and look for possible data indicating the physical presence of Dyson Dyson spheres. "I would be over the moon if I actually found it," Hsiao said.

Although he was not involved in the work, Macy Huston, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Pennsylvania State University, told the website Live Science that such searches are useful no matter what is found, "Even if you don't find a Dyson sphere, you might find something interesting," they said. .

However, black holes present unique challenges for alien superengineers. This "gravitational monster" tends to be less stable than stars in terms of energy production, Houston said.

When the sun keeps shining, black holes usually burst into activity as they consume less and less matter, followed by a period of quiet, Houston said. Alien species may have to be on the lookout for particularly large explosions that could disrupt orbital structures.

But "if a species is looking for something more powerful than a star, this could be it -- black holes,"