The question of whether life exists beyond Earth has intrigued humanity for generations. Recently, an international team of researchers from Sweden, India, the US, and the UK developed a method to search for advanced extraterrestrial megastructures, known as Dyson spheres, according to Science Alert.
A Dyson sphere is a theoretical megastructure that an advanced civilization could construct to capture the energy output of a star. The team, part of “Project Hephaistos,” aims to detect these structures by identifying their technosignatures. Their findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
After sifting through millions of potential celestial objects, the researchers believe they have identified seven stars that might host such megastructures. These findings suggest the presence of civilizations that could be classified as Level II on the Kardashev scale, which measures a civilization’s technological advancement based on its energy consumption. However, further analysis is needed to confirm these candidates.
The concept of a Dyson sphere was first proposed by physicist Freeman J. Dyson in 1960. He envisioned it as a swarm of objects orbiting a star, capable of capturing its entire energy output to support a technologically advanced society.
According to Indy.com, these megastructures would allow an alien civilization to harness a star’s energy to meet its vast power needs.
The team identified the seven potential Dyson spheres by analyzing data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia star map, the 2MASS infrared astronomical survey, and NASA’s WISE infrared space telescope.
“This structure would emit waste heat as mid-infrared radiation, depending on its effective temperature and the level of completion,” explained Matias Suazo from Sweden’s Uppsala University. A specialized pipeline was developed to detect these candidates by identifying sources with unusual infrared excesses that can’t be explained by known natural sources.
However, many natural objects, such as nebulae and background galaxies, also emit excess infrared radiation. To overcome this, the researchers created a pipeline specifically designed to filter out anomalies exhibiting unusual infrared excesses.
The initial search yielded 368 sources. After rigorous filtering, including eliminating blends, irregulars, and nebulae, only seven potential candidates remained from approximately five million initial objects.
“All sources are clear mid-infrared emitters with no obvious contaminants or signatures indicating a known mid-infrared origin,” the researchers stated.
The team now plans to conduct optical spectroscopy to gain a deeper understanding of these seven candidates.
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