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 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 TheCustomLime wrote:
Where's that picture of that weird guy from Ancient Aliens when you need it?

Exactly!

I've been waiting for that as well. Where the hell is it?

Purge the aliens.

Pretty sure he'd actually join the Tau Empire if given the option

Tactical_Spam wrote:If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

So, you're theory is that Aliens would 'come after us' because of our disgusting warlike nature to...start a war with us?

That's an awfully long way to go to do something that they (allegedly) are looking down on us for doing.

CT GAMER wrote:That's no moon...

Well, accourding to one theory, not any more!

 Alpharius wrote:

Tactical_Spam wrote:If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

So, you're theory is that Aliens would 'come after us' because of our disgusting warlike nature to...start a war with us?

That's an awfully long way to go to do something that they (allegedly) are looking down on us for doing.

CT GAMER wrote:That's no moon...

Well, accourding to one theory, not any more!

Genetic plague works nicely for those things

Also, even if a civilization arose capable of creating "mega structures" of some sort around a star system, that would in no way be an indicator of the capability for interstellar travel.

(of course, I agree with everyone that the jump from "look what we found" to "aliens" was nothing more than a comment some dude made that media outlets seized on for clickbait)

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

You assume they wouldnt also be violent and dangerous.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

Sure, if they had some sort of space-magic way of knowing that, and some space-magic way of getting over here. It'd be like hearing there was an ant hill on the other side of the country and driving over there just to stomp on that one particular ant hill.

Have we been sending radio signals out into space long enough for them to have reached that distant star? Even if there were advanced aliens on that star they, I would guess, wouldn't be getting any signals from our planet indicating it has intelligent life for a very long time.

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
Have we been sending radio signals out into space long enough for them to have reached that distant star? Even if there were advanced aliens on that star they, I would guess, wouldn't be getting any signals from our planet indicating it has intelligent life for a very long time.

KIC 8462852 is 454 parsecs (≈1481 light years) from Earth (source = Wikipedia), so there are still hundreds of years before any of our radio signals would reach that star.

It's about 1,500 light years out, so the light from our sun reaching them just now left our solar system at about the same time the Vandals were sacking Rome.

The first man made radio signals wouldn't be reaching them for another 1,400 yearsish, but just because they get there doesn't mean anything is listening for them, on the vanishing rare chance that there's anything there to listen in the first place..

Uh oh, we found the Outsider D:
Biotransference is at hand!

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
Have we been sending radio signals out into space long enough for them to have reached that distant star? Even if there were advanced aliens on that star they, I would guess, wouldn't be getting any signals from our planet indicating it has intelligent life for a very long time.

What makes you think aliens will be able to receive those radio signals? And even if they did get the signal, why would they bother with it?
I mean, it is fething aliens, if they exist their logic is likely going to be alien as well.

 Bookwrack wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

Sure, if they had some sort of space-magic way of knowing that, and some space-magic way of getting over here. It'd be like hearing there was an ant hill on the other side of the country and driving over there just to stomp on that one particular ant hill.

But how guilty would we feel if we went to the other side of the country to stomp on an anthill?

/Contact Quotes.

Radio signals are a result of natural laws of physics.

Any alien with a technology as high as World War One would be able to receive radio signals. They might not bother to do anything with it of course.

Besides, it would probably just be static at 1500 LY away.

 Iron_Captain wrote:

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
Have we been sending radio signals out into space long enough for them to have reached that distant star? Even if there were advanced aliens on that star they, I would guess, wouldn't be getting any signals from our planet indicating it has intelligent life for a very long time.

What makes you think aliens will be able to receive those radio signals? And even if they did get the signal, why would they bother with it?
I mean, it is fething aliens, if they exist their logic is likely going to be alien as well.

I'm not saying they could or would, though if there were intelligent life sophisticated enough to build massive structures in space, they probably have figured out radio signals by now. Perhaps their technology could have advanced so far beyond radio that they no longer would pick those signals up.

None of that is relevant to the point I was making. We don't have to worry about agressive aliens around that star for apparently about 1500 years since they would have no reason to know that we exist since our signals won't have reached them yet.

Now we know where the Stargates buried in the pyramids will lead.

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
None of that is relevant to the point I was making. We don't have to worry about agressive aliens around that star for apparently about 1500 years since they would have no reason to know that we exist since our signals won't have reached them yet.

3000 years. They have to get here afterwards, and that number assumes they can get something up to high c-fractional speeds.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
If it were aliens with that technology level, wouldnt they have come after us? Who in the right mind would want to trade and have relations with humans? All we know how to do is kill each other and start wars

Implying that humans are the only ones to do that, I see.
I find it unlikely that out of all the possible species in the universe, humans are the only warmongerers.
Especially when there are terrestrial species that are just as violent.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Radio signals are a result of natural laws of physics.

Any alien with a technology as high as World War One would be able to receive radio signals. They might not bother to do anything with it of course.

"Who are these donkey-caves and what do they keep gakking onto the old-old-old-old-oldband?"

Let's not forget the universe is a large and ancient place and we barely just got vaguely on the stage. Even if this were the work of aliens, it could be a remnant of a long extinct race/society.

Again, not saying it is or whatever, just noting that even if it were an alien megastructure, for all we know they wiped themselves out (or were wiped out) hundreds, thousands, or millions of years ago.

I believe part of the Drake Equation has to do with the percentage of (theoretical) alien civilizations getting to more advanced levels of technology without wiping themselves out (or being wiped out in general).

Just remember as a fun scientific theory, if actual Dyson Spheres exist, we almost certainly won't be able to see them with telescopes, as they will block all the light from the sun they enclose.......

If I was the Ancient Aliens guy, that would "obviously*" mean they exist.

*"Obviously" being the immediate precursor statement to some gigantic crackpot jump in logic.

 n0t_u wrote:

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:

 TheCustomLime wrote:
Where's that picture of that weird guy from Ancient Aliens when you need it?

Exactly!

I've been waiting for that as well. Where the hell is it?

Purge the aliens.

I'm lucky I wasn't drinking anything when I saw that. I burst out laughing.

 Ashiraya wrote:
Ah, have we finally found the mass relays?

Boy, would we have a video game to show to the Council!

 Laughing Man wrote:

Gwaihirsbrother wrote:
None of that is relevant to the point I was making. We don't have to worry about agressive aliens around that star for apparently about 1500 years since they would have no reason to know that we exist since our signals won't have reached them yet.

3000 years. They have to get here afterwards, and that number assumes they can get something up to high c-fractional speeds.

I agree somewhat with what you are saying here as my understanding of our understanding of physics suggests they wouldn't be able to exceed speed of light to get to us. I was giving this hypothetical advanced species the benefit of the doubt that they've found a way around the speed limit.

I guess if they've explored the galaxy a bit and could exceed the speed of light they might have dropped probes or observation beacons throughout the galaxy where they've explored or just launched them out randomly. Then if one of these was scanning radio frequencies and happen ed to be nearby, it could log the data and send it back faster than light with their cool tech so maybe we have less than 1500 years. Gonna assume that many things going just right for them to discover us aren't going to happen. Not saying we've found aliens either.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
Just remember as a fun scientific theory, if actual Dyson Spheres exist, we almost certainly won't be able to see them with telescopes, as they will block all the light from the sun they enclose.......

It depends on the variant, but for the most part that's correct.

It should be noted that astronomers have studied vast swaths of the sky with infrared telescopes (which would allow the star inside the sphere to be seen) and have yet to find one.

Why would infrared allow a Dyson Sphere to be seen? Isn't the point that it absorbs ALL the energy coming from the star, including IR?

Regardless, something the size of a star would still have mass enough to affect stuff around it, so it'd be "visible" in the same way a black hole would, no?

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Why would infrared allow a Dyson Sphere to be seen? Isn't the point that it absorbs ALL the energy coming from the star, including IR?

Yes, but it has to lose that energy somehow, otherwise the temperature on the inside of the sphere will keep increasing as it absorbs energy from the sun, until the whole thing melts and suffers a complete structural collapse. So it has to radiate energy to the outside, and it will certainly be warmer than the background temperature of space. The only question is how far away you'd be able to detect that radiation from, which is a question that depends on the exact methods used.

The other thing about a Dyson sphere is that a spherical object roughly 16 light minutes across will visibly occlude many stars behind it as you start to approach it.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:
Why would infrared allow a Dyson Sphere to be seen? Isn't the point that it absorbs ALL the energy coming from the star, including IR?

Regardless, something the size of a star would still have mass enough to affect stuff around it, so it'd be "visible" in the same way a black hole would, no?

An "actual" Dyson Sphere isn't a complete sphere, but a "cloud" of solar panels that surround the star. So light would still get through, might actually make it easier to recognize.

You would get a mixture of some sun glimpses, probably with lighthouse effect, together with a much larger IR signature and some occlusion of distant stars.