UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

IN BRIEF

Due to advances in technology, scientists have been keeping an eye out for signs of alien megastructures. One scientist hypothesizes that, if such a megastructure exists, it would be around a pulsar instead of a star.

During the 1960s, Freeman Dyson and Nikolai Kardashev captured the imaginations of people everywhere by making some radical proposals. Whereas Dyson proposed that intelligent species could eventually create megastructures to harness the energy of their stars, Kardashev offered a three-tiered classification system for intelligent species based on their ability to harness the energy of their planet, solar system, and galaxy, respectively.

With missions that are now capable of locating extra-solar planets (i.e. the Kepler Space Observatory) scientists have been on the lookout for signs of possible alien megastructures. Unfortunately, aside from some very arguable results, no concrete evidence has yet come to light. Lucky for us, in a study from the Free University of Tbilisi, Professor Zaza Osmanov offers some new insight on why megastructures may have eluded us so far.

While fascinating, the idea of alien megastructures invariably suffers from the same problem as all other attempts to find signs of intelligent life in our Universe. Basically, if intelligent life exists, why have we consistently failed to find any evidence of it? This conundrum, which was summed up by Enrico Fermi in the 1950s (thereafter known as the Fermi Paradox), has hung like a shadow over all our efforts.

Artist’s impression of an orbiting swarm of dusty comet fragments around Tabby’s Star.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For example, in the summer of 2015, a team of astronomers announced that they found what might be an indication of an alien megastructure around Tabby’s Star (KIC 8462852). However, they were quick to point out that any number of possibilities could explain the strange dimming pattern coming from the star, and subsequent studies offered even more plausible explanations — such as the star having consumed a planet at some point in its past.

To this, Osmanov has argued that the problem is that we are looking in the wrong places. Last year, he wrote a research paper in which he ventured that an alien super civilization — i.e. one that was consistent with a Level II Kardashev civilization — would likely use ring-like megastructures to harness the power of their stars. This is in contrast to the traditional concept of a “Dyson’s Sphere,” which would consist of a spherical shell.

Furthermore, he argued that these Dyson Rings would likely be built around pulsars rather than stars, and offered estimates on their dimensions which were dependent on the rotational speed of the pulsar. According to Osmanov’s latest study, titled “Are the Dyson rings around pulsars detectable?“, Osmanov extends the problem of spotting alien megastructures to the observational realm.

Specifically, he addressed how alien megastructures could be spotted by identifying their infrared energy signatures, and at what kinds of distances. By examining how such structures would vary in terms of the amount of IR radiation they would emit, he believes that they could be spotted within our local Universe using existing instruments.

Artist’s impression of the exotic double object that consists of a tiny neutron star orbited every two and a half hours by a white dwarf star.

Image Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Once again, it comes down to the diameter of the structures, which would in turn depend on the type of pulsar they orbit. As he states in the paper:

A couple of years earlier before publishing the paper of Kardashev, the prominent physicist Freeman Dyson has suggested that if such superadvanced (in the terminology of Kardashev, Level-II) extraterrestrials exist, for increasing efficiency of energy consumption they can construct a thin spherical shell with radius ?1AU surrounding a host star (Dyson 1960). It has been argued that for such distances the sphere will be in the so-called habitable zone (HZ) and therefore the sphere will have the temperature of the order of (200 – 300 K), making this object visible in the infrared spectrum.

Extending this to pulsars, Osmanov estimates that the habitable zone around a relatively slowly-rotating pulsar (with a period of about half a second) would be on the order of 0.1 AU. According to his calculations, a ring-like megastructure that orbited a pulsar at this distance would emit temperatures on the order of 390 K (116.85 °C; 242.33 °F), which means that the megastructure would be visible in the IR band.

From this, Osmanov concludes that modern IR telescopes — such as the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) — would have the necessary capacity to monitor nearby pulsars for signs of alien megastructures. He further concludes that for this purpose, these telescopes would have an effective range of up to 200 parsecs (~652 light years).

Ever since it was first announced in 2015, there has been speculation as to what could account for the dimming of KIC 8462852.

Image Credit: Eburacum45/SentientDevelopments.com

In addition, he goes on to state that within this volume of space, multiple candidates could be found and examined using these same existing instruments:

We have considered the sensitivity of VLTI and by taking into account its higher possible angular resolution, 0.001 mas, it has been shown that the maximum distance ~0.2 kpc leads to the IR spectral density of the order of 7.4 mJy, which in turn, can be detected by the VLTI. We have argued that by monitoring the nearby zone of the Solar System approximately 64 pulsars are expected to be located inside it.

Beyond these distances, up to the kiloparsec range (about 3260 light years), the angular resolution of these telescopes would not be enough to detect the structure of any rings. As such, finding megastructures at this distance would require telescopes that can conduct surveys in the UV band — which corresponds to the surface temperatures of neutron stars (7000 K). However, this would have to wait upon the development of more sensitive instruments.

“As we see, the search of infrared rings is quite promising for distances up to -0.2 kpc, where one will be able to monitor potentially 64 ± 21 pulsars by using the IR instruments,” he concluded. “Observation of distant pulsars (up to -1kpc), although will significantly increase the total number of potential objects – to 1600 ± 530, but at this moment the UV instruments cannot provide such a level of sensitivity.”

There are Dyson rings and spheres and this, an illustration of a Dyson swarm. Could this or a variation of it be what we’re detecting around KIC? Not likely, but a fun thought experiment.

Image Credit: Falcorian/Wikipedia Commons

So while the range would be limited, the opportunities for testing this hypothesis would not. All told, between 43 and 85 candidates exist within the observable volume of space, according to Osmanov’s estimates. And with existing IR telescopes — and next-generation telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescopes — up to the task, some surveys could be conducted that would yield valuable information either way.

The concept of alien megastructures remains a controversial one, and for good reason. For one, the potential evidence for such structures – i.e. the periodic dimming of a star – can easily be explained by other means. Second, there is an undeniable degree of wishful thinking when it comes to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, which means that any findings could be subject to bias.

Nevertheless, the search for intelligent life remains a very fascinating field of study, and a necessary one at that. Not only would finding other examples of life in our Universe put to rest one of the most burning existential questions of all time — are we alone? — it would also allow us to learn a great deal about what other forms life could take. Is all life carbon based, are there other possibilities, etc? We would like to know!

In the end, the Fermi Paradox will only be resolved when we find definitive evidence that there is intelligent life out there other than our own. In the meantime, we can expect that we will keep searching until we find something. And anything that make this easier by telling us where we should (and what specifically to look for) is sure to help.

In the past decade there has been as many as 200 sightings across the Somerset

by Taboola

Is it time to call Mulder and Scully? After the spotting of a mysterious flying object in the skies over Frome, it might come as a bit of surprise that this is just one of nearly 200 reported sightings in Somerset, in the past decade, according to www.uk-ufo.co.uk .

It would seem that aliens are choosing the West Country for a weekend break but there are still plenty of doubters as to whether there is extraterrestrial life out there.

Here are ten of the most convincing sightings. Let us know in the comments below whether you believe the witness statements. The truth is out there.

Yeovil – 20 May 2013 – 23:15

Darren was just winding down after a particularly intense part of his Open University course, when he spotted something strange in the cloudy sky. He recalls: “It was moving very quickly through the sky and if it wasn’t for the moon reflecting off its silver surface, I would not have seen the triangular fronted object that whizzed on through the air in front of me.

“I really did see some kind of object going silently and very fast across the skyline at around 200-400ft. I would estimate the object to be about twice as wide as a passenger jumbo jet but it didn’t seem to be as long. It had a triangular front to its shape and reminded me of the black stealth aircraft that you see on television.

“This all happened in the space of two seconds.”

UFO probability rating: 6/10

Taunton Racecourse – 3 July 2011 – 22:00

Chris has been enjoying a music festival at the racecourse when something caught his eye in the sky. He remembers: “In a perfectly clear sky, no other stars in sight, a white orb of light appeared and seemed to get brighter and brighter, and then quickly faded out, or shot up in to the sky. It was if it had been spotted. I was in a completely sober state at the time of this sighting and was completely lost for words.”

UFO probability rating: 2/10

Yeovil – 1 January 2010 – 00:15

Vanessa was celebrating the new year by letting the dogs out to do their business before bedtime, when something caught her eye. She said: “I noticed an orange light in the sky, above a house approximately 300 metres from our house. It was an orange glow, at least 1000 metres high and moved steadily towards our house. It was travelling as fast as a plane, but there was no noise. It wasn’t a plane or helicopter and was travelling too fast to be a Chinese lantern.

“The glow passed over our house and then carried on travelling until it was out of sight. There were approximately seven other lights moving on the same trajectory at the same speed over the next five minutes.

“My husband also saw the lights – he has been in the RAF and confirmed that it wasn’t any aircraft that he was familiar with.”

UFO probability rating: 6/10

Frome – 24 November 2011 – 18:20

Tom was enjoying a crisp November night when he saw a satellite in the sky. The problem was, it wasn’t behaving how he would expect it to. He recalls: “I noticed that it was in fact slowly changing direction and not continuing in a straight direction as one would expect.

“At this point I could also see another satellite in a different location in the night sky. The first object started to change its direction more drastically before a large flash appeared to the right of where it was travelling. a few moments later a second flash appeared from the same static location fading back to a singular point of light and then entirely. Each flash lasted for no more than 4 seconds.”

UFO probability rating: 3/10

Glastonbury – 7 August 2011 – 21:45

Kevin and Lorraine had spotted various bright lights in the sky on previous occasions but this time there was something otherworldly about them. Lorraine said about the incident: “It appeared much lower, bigger and brighter. A bright orange oval shape, moving fairly fast and silently.

“It appeared suddenly and disappeared just as suddenly. Myself, my husband and also a third person with us have seen this by chance over a least the last two years.”

UFO probability rating: 4/10

'Alien' spotted at Yeovil bus stop

Bridgwater – 25 November 2011 – 20:00

Andy was taken aback when he saw an object resembling an Egyptian pyramid, hovering just a couple hundred feet above his house. He explains: “It was a fairly clear, very dark, starry night. I looked up to see a dark shape moving almost directly above me, heading from the north to the south. It passed by in about two seconds, covering the distance of a mile.

“As it passed over, it appeared to be a very dark diamond shape (rhombus), upright and appeared to be completely flat. It appeared darker than the surrounding near-black night sky and had a very dim ‘light’ at each point on the back. I estimate it passed overhead at an altitude of a couple of hundred feet and must have been approx. 50 feet across.”

UFO probability rating: 6/10

Minehead – 2 June 2014 – 23:00

Gavin was playing computer games with friends when a strange, low humming noise caught his ear. On looking out of the window, he was shocked by what he saw. He recalled: “I saw a huge black triangle, which appeared to have two white lights and one red light on the bottom of it.

“The craft can only have been 120 to 150 feet off the ground and was moving extremely slowly across the sky.”

This is not the first sighting of this UFO, as it seems to be a regular in the neighbourhood. Gavin continues: “I have seen this same craft four times now and it is usually heading in the same direction and it’s always a clear night when I see it.”

UFO probability rating: 2/10

Weston-Super-Mare – 12 August 2010 – 21:30

During a meteor shower, Ken spotted something that resembled a fried egg performing strangely in the sky. He explains what he thought he saw: “This light dropped rapidly before rapidly ascending almost vertically. It then began moving very fast in circles and darting up and down.

“It had no real lights, more a haze of white and grey and after about 30 seconds, it disappeared from my view.”

It hadn’t finished there though and the UFO was soon back to torment Ken. He continued: “I saw this again but now it went extremely fast from the west towards the east. It had a yellowish glow with three brighter yellowy glows within it.”

UFO probability rating: 3/10

Bath – 24 August 2010 – 04:00

In the middle of the night, Bradleigh was driving home from hospital when he saw a UFO covered in Egyptian style writing hovering just 15 metres off the ground. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get photographic evidence but he did say: “I was really shocked of what I witnessed. It was a grey disc and had a multi-coloured aura underneath the craft. It had a semi-circular window on the top that I could not see through. I stared at it for about 30 seconds before it started to rotate whilst hovering very strangely. All of a sudden, it then shoots towards Cley Hill area.

“It left a trail of smoke or steam and a second later, the smoke or steam pulsated and followed the UFO. I have done some research on UFO sightings in the area and found that Cley Hill is a hotspot for some reason.”

UFO probability rating: 5/10

Milverton – 27 September 2014 – 02:00

Mrs. Quarmby and her husband had been enjoying watching fire jugglers at a party, when their attention was taken by a spectacular shooting star. What happened next though has stumped her for an explanation, though she does try: “What I thought was a shooting star transformed into three lights, which formed a perfect triangle pointing towards the earth.

Each corner was lit very brightly and I know it wasn’t a plane or helicopter. The lights were much brighter than the stars and much bigger. It looked like it was hovering, then vanished.”

UFO probability rating: 3/10

Have you seen an UFO over Somerset, of have had an unexplained otherworldly experience whilst completely sober, then we would love to know about it in the comments below.