Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures'

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

A large cluster of objects in space look like something you would "expect an alien civilization to build", astronomers have said.

Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish a report on the “bizarre” star system suggesting the objects could be a “swarm of megastructures”, according to a new report.

...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/forget-water-on-mars-astronomers-may-have-just-found-giant-alien-megastructures-orbiting-a-star-near-a6693886.html?fb_action_ids=10153659505513523&fb_action_types=og.shares

If the 'aliens' guess is right, what we're looking at may well be something like this illustration of a Dyson shell:



More detail here:
ARE THOSE REALLY ALIEN MEGASTRUCTURES? HOW ASTRONOMERS PLAN TO INVESTIGATE

It's also worth mentioning that this star is about 1400 light years away, so whatever we are looking was going on around the time that the Roman empire fell.

Seth Shostak, SETI's senior astronomer, weighs in:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-shostak/alien-engineering-around_b_8353762.html

Where is Master Chief when you need him? This is probably Halo!

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

A large cluster of objects in space look like something you would "expect an alien civilization to build", astronomers have said.

Jason Wright, an astronomer from Penn State University, is set to publish a report on the “bizarre” star system suggesting the objects could be a “swarm of megastructures”, according to a new report.

...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/forget-water-on-mars-astronomers-may-have-just-found-giant-alien-megastructures-orbiting-a-star-near-a6693886.html?fb_action_ids=10153659505513523&fb_action_types=og.shares

That's awesome, I go to Penn State and its been a big deal here.

Astronomers Begin Woldwide Observations of 'Unusual' Star as SETI Listens for Alien Signals

Tbh this sounds like a regular case of popular media blowing things out of proportions. Reading the report it seems much more reasonable that the differences in the stars light relative to the earth is caused by a belt of passing comets rather than a Dyson Sphere.

Ochams razor dudes.

better check Uranus.

Ochams razor dudes.

The comet cloud is best naturalistic explanation; however, that doesn't necessarily mean it is the simplest, or the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

At present, everything in our understanding of the universe suggests that it should be swarming with life. Indeed, it's something of a puzzle that the entire galaxy has not been colonised already; it should probably have happened millions if not billions of years ago, even if one assumes quite slow sublight velocities.

In this regard, "aliens" is not actually a very wild proposition. An empty universe would be significantly stranger, and would suggest that all of our science is fundamentally flawed in a very serious way. In fact, none of the explanations we've been able to come up with for our failure so far to detect alien societies are good news.

So I feel you have to be very cautious in trying to appeal to Ockham's Razor; it is not at all obvious that the absence of ET's is the simplest solution. In some respects it is the most outlandish.

There have been a couple of other incidents of interest that have not garnered nearly as much interest because they are much more ambivalent. There is the famous "Wow! signal; there was a trio of inexplicable signals picked up in 2004; there are about 30 stars emitting too much IR. The splash that this one made arose precisely because astronomers do think that alien engineering is the best explanation currently available, even if it ultimately turns out to be incorrect.

snip.

Oh I'm not saying I consider Intelligent extra-terrestrial life as something unlikely. Being alone in this vast space would be surprising. (Especially given the occurrence of complex organic on such hostile areas as comets.) Nor that a dyson swarm would not be hypothetically (although Outlandish) possible.

I was merely pointing out that this article looks like a classic click-bait. Like how articles about stuff like Quantum Teleportation will sometimes include a picture of the Star-Trek teleporter

Perhaps, but I don't think that's what it is. Following on from what I posted initially, the original article says:

I was fascinated by how crazy it looked,” Wright told The Atlantic. “Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”

So, this isn't the press putting words in the mouth of scientists, this is what the scientists themselves are saying. It's certainly news-worthy, but I don't see much in the way of gilding the lilly going on here. I don't know how else such a story should have been reported.

Where is Master Chief when you need him? This is probably Halo!

Who gives a fuck about that twat? Time to establish Systems Alliance and recruit people for the N7 Program.



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Classic click-bait title, although the actual story is sound.

As scientists, they would need to collect vast amounts of empirical evidence before any theories can be formed. Jumping to the "its aliens" conclusion is a bit premature. Interesting read though.

the scientific method is still in action so there is no answer to story now end of the line...scientists should stop giving one definite answer and start assuming many which they do but some don't..ego issue i guess