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'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

space.com

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Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#181

Post by lisper »

thereisnoself wrote: post #133

I've often thought planet TrEs-2b [0], the darkest planet ever discovered orbiting a star, would be the best candidate for extra terrestrial life. My theory is that its darkness is down to the fact that the civilisation there has figured out a way to harness solar energy to near 100% capacity, along the lines of a Dyson sphere [1]. [0] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/1716/tres-2-b [1] https://en.wikiped…

> My theory is that its darkness is down to the fact that the civilisation there has figured out a way to harness solar energy to near 100% capacity, along the lines of a Dyson sphere [1].

Very unlikely, in light of the fact that "the air of this planet is as hot as lava".

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#182

Post by Kubuxu »

denton-scratch wrote: post #81

> radio waves from satellites and telescopes beaming out in the plane of our solar system Surely radio telescopes don't "beam out" radio waves? They receive them. If they are configured to transmit, like the Deep Space Array, they don't beam in the plane of the solar system; they beam at whatever spaceship they are trying to communicate with. Satellites even less; they have to conserve power, so they don't send radio…

We use some radio telescopes for radar astronomy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_astronomy

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#183

Post by bloggie »

lisper wrote: post #181
thereisnoself wrote: post #133

I've often thought planet TrEs-2b [0], the darkest planet ever discovered orbiting a star, would be the best candidate for extra terrestrial life. My theory is that its darkness is down to the fact that the civilisation there has figured out a way to harness solar energy to near 100% capacity, along the lines of a Dyson sphere [1]. [0] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/1716/tres-2-b [1] https://en.wikiped…

> My theory is that its darkness is down to the fact that the civilisation there has figured out a way to harness solar energy to near 100% capacity, along the lines of a Dyson sphere [1]. Very unlikely, in light of the fact that "the air of this planet is as hot as lava".

Isn’t that the expected outcome when energy production eventually outpaces the planet’s ability to dissipate energy into space?

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#184

Post by rendall »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #101

I think the authors do not understand how planetary resonances work and how precise (or imprecise) the orbits need to be for the resonance to hold. Resonances are very common. We have lots of resonances in our Solar system in all different places between bodies. For the resonance to be stable, two bodies do not need to have mathematically precise orbits in relation to each other. There is quite a wide margin for erro…

What is the mechanism by which orbiting bodies exchange energy?

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#185

Post by [deleted] »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #101

I think the authors do not understand how planetary resonances work and how precise (or imprecise) the orbits need to be for the resonance to hold. Resonances are very common. We have lots of resonances in our Solar system in all different places between bodies. For the resonance to be stable, two bodies do not need to have mathematically precise orbits in relation to each other. There is quite a wide margin for erro…

[deleted]

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#186

Post by empath-nirvana »

onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #101

I think the authors do not understand how planetary resonances work and how precise (or imprecise) the orbits need to be for the resonance to hold. Resonances are very common. We have lots of resonances in our Solar system in all different places between bodies. For the resonance to be stable, two bodies do not need to have mathematically precise orbits in relation to each other. There is quite a wide margin for erro…

The reason they're _actually_ looking at that system is that we're looking directly down on it so we can see the orbits of all the planets at once. It has nothing to do with thinking the orbits are unnatural.

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#187

Post by empath-nirvana »

rendall wrote: post #184
onetimeuse92304 wrote: post #101

I think the authors do not understand how planetary resonances work and how precise (or imprecise) the orbits need to be for the resonance to hold. Resonances are very common. We have lots of resonances in our Solar system in all different places between bodies. For the resonance to be stable, two bodies do not need to have mathematically precise orbits in relation to each other. There is quite a wide margin for erro…

What is the mechanism by which orbiting bodies exchange energy?

Gravitational waves.

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#188

Post by exe34 »

dmazin wrote: post #144
thereisnoself wrote: post #133

I've often thought planet TrEs-2b [0], the darkest planet ever discovered orbiting a star, would be the best candidate for extra terrestrial life. My theory is that its darkness is down to the fact that the civilisation there has figured out a way to harness solar energy to near 100% capacity, along the lines of a Dyson sphere [1]. [0] https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/1716/tres-2-b [1] https://en.wikiped…

That’s an interesting exoplanet, though not sure how someone would live on a gas giant.

In accelerando by Charlie stross, they live on raft that covers a large percentage of the planet's sky.

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#189

Post by empath-nirvana »

cbsmith wrote: post #155
DrBazza wrote: post #103

To paraphrase Pratchett: million to one chances happen nine times out of ten. Space is big, really big, etc. so it's no surprise we've found something like this just through chance alone. One of the planets is probably Bethselamin.

Yeah... feels like someone isn't familiar with the law of large numbers...

I think it's mostly that people didn't read the article. The planets are interesting to study because of the angle we're looking at them and for no other reason. They happened to be aligned in such a way that we can get interesting measurements from them.

Re: 'Mathematically perfect' star system being investigated for potential alien tech

#190

Post by exe34 »

wongarsu wrote: post #163
dmazin wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s an interesting exoplanet, though not sure how someone would live on a gas giant.

Maybe they don't. They might live on a rocky planet further out and just use TrES-2b as a place to run their solar farm because it's extremely close to their star and (due to being uninhabited) didn't have any NIMBYs opposing large-scale construction projects. Note how far out from the planet's orbit NASA expects the habitable zone. We aren't very good yet at finding planets that aren't huge or nearly hugging their s…

To be fair, if your solar farm can be in orbit around a planet that's not your legal address for tax purposes, it can just orbit the star?
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