New infrared telescope will help us find the Dyson spheres

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The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is gaining momentum, thanks to the introduction of a new powerful infrared telescope. In addition to the search of pulses of infrared light astronomers with its help it will look for the mega structure of the aliens — like the Dyson spheres.

The idea of searching for extraterrestrial life with the help of optics existed for a long time. For the first time that we can discover the message of the aliens in the infrared range, spoke even the Creator of laser and Nobel laureate Charles Townes in 1961. Trying to find optical signals started to be taken more than a decade ago, but the tools capable of detecting the pulses of infrared light, was developed not so long ago.

New infrared detector, located in the Observatory Lik near San Jose, called NIROSETI, which stands for "near infrared optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence".

As noted physicist, University of California Shelly Wright in UCSD News, "infrared light would be a great tool for interstellar communications." Although the signal lasts only one billionth of a second, the momentum is quite powerful infrared laser would dwarf star. If this light will be aimed straight at us (and assuming that we will have something to detect it), extraterrestrial civilization could send us a number of repeated coded signals indicating its presence.

There are several advantages of using infrared light compared to radio or visible light. Radio signals are extremely weak and are sprayed during the transmission over huge distances. Infrared light penetrates deeper through the dust and gas than visible light. Accordingly, the team NIROSETI will be able to expand the search among the stars that are in the thousands and not hundreds of light years from us. In addition, for the transmission of infrared light will require less energy than for visible light transmission.





Remarkably, NIROSETI can also be used to search for Dyson spheres. These hypothetical mega structure can cover the whole star to convert the absorbed light into usable energy. However, not all traces of a star will be hidden. Star energy will again be transmitted into space at lower temperatures. And if we assume that all visible light will be absorbed by the shell, the signature pure Dyson sphere is the availability of infrared feature.

"NIROSETI can detect Dyson spheres that emit large quantities of near infrared light, particularly if their brightness will fluctuate," said Geoff Marcy, a member of the team NIROSETI and Professor of astronomy at Berkeley, resource io9.

Interestingly, this device can also be used for the disclosure of astrophysical information.

"The grounders for the first time can look at the Universe in the infrared range with nanosecond time scale, says Dan Werthimer of NIROSETI. — This tool can open new astrophysical phenomena, and maybe even answer the question: are we alone?".

The "new" sphere of Dasanapura Turkish cosmologists from the University Bogazici suggested that scientists are looking for traces of the existence of Dyson spheres, can look absolutely not the objects. Ibrahim and Salim Semis Ogur wrote a paper, a Preprint is available on arXiv, in which he suggested that if an advanced civilization built a Dyson sphere, it would build it around a white dwarf.

Promote the idea of the Dyson sphere began when physicist Freeman Dyson published in the 60-ies of the work, outlining the idea of building advanced civilization sphere around a star to absorb its energy for their own use. This idea has become popular in science fiction and has attracted the attention of real researchers who believe that if the Dyson sphere is discovered, it will be a convincing proof of the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

Over time, the Dyson and other scientists came to the conclusion that a large amount of material required for the construction of such areas makes the idea untenable, and hence more likely to be the construction of the ring exciting the energy satellites that would constantly expand.

However, the concept of the sphere is preserved, and because some scientists continue to search for such, believing that if they are constructed, the process of capturing energy from the sun will produce an infrared signature. To date, no such signatures were found. Perhaps we alone in the Universe or just isn't there. Semis and Ogur argue that an advanced civilization rather build a sphere around a white dwarf, not a normal star like our Sun, not only because this sphere is less (for a sphere a meter thick will need 10^23 kg of matter), but the gravity on its surface will be similar to the gravity of their home planet.

Unfortunately, if Semis and Ogur are right, hardly we will be able to confirm this soon, as the luminosity of a white dwarf is much lower than other stars, and hence the infra-red signature would be very difficult to detect, not to mention the rest. published

Source: hi-news.ru

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