Soon after the release of the WISE all-sky catalogue of 500 million mid-infrared (IR) objects, suggestions were made that it could be used to search for extrasolar devices constructed by […]
Dyson Sphere
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
Background Contamination of the Project Hephaistos Dyson Spheres Candidates
Project Hephaistos recently identified seven M-dwarfs as possible Dyson Spheres (DS) candidates. We have cross-matched three of these candidates (A, B \& G) with radio sources detected in various all-sky […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
Is There A Universal Limit To Technological Development? Evidences From Astrobiology
Considering the vastness of time and space, if one civilization — ours — has been able to advance technologically to the point of leaving its own planet, why technosignatures from […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
Detectability of Solar Panels as a Technosignature
In this work, we assess the potential detectability of solar panels made of silicon on an Earth-like exoplanet as a potential technosignature. Silicon-based photovoltaic cells have high reflectance in the […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Intelligence & Language, Press Release, SETI & Technosignatures
Searching for Signs of Intelligent Life: Technosignatures
Our first confirmed proof of life beyond Earth might not involve biology at all. It’s possible that we might intercept communication through electromagnetic waves, like radio, or find telescopic evidence […]
Posted inPress Release, Science Fiction, SETI & Technosignatures, Terraforming & Geoengineering
Application of the Thermodynamics of Radiation to Dyson Spheres as Work Extractors and Computational Engines, and their Observational Consequences
I apply the thermodynamics of radiation to Dyson spheres as machines that do work or computation, and examine their observational consequences.
Posted inHabitable Zones, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report, Terraforming & Geoengineering
Making Habitable Worlds: Planets Versus Megastructures
In 2015, a star KIC 8462852 caught the world’s attention due to a paper by citizen scientists who noticed its seemingly unexplainable brightness variations.
Posted inPress Release, SETI & Technosignatures
Dyson Spheres
I review the origins and development of the idea of Dyson spheres, their purpose, their engineering, and their detectability. I explicate the ways in which the popular imagining of them […]