Intelligent aliens may be hiding in Dyson spheres, which surround white dwarf stars across the Milky Way, an expert claims.
Ben Zuckerman, who teaches physics and astronomy at UCLA, is a co-author of a new study exploring these ideas, among others.
According to Live Science, Zuckerman believes this is the point of the search for aliens.
Aliens have yet to be found elsewhere.
But the professor doesn’t believe that a possible alien civilization would go through the trouble of traveling to new stars if it was just to build a Dyson sphere.
Instead, he thinks the spheres will be built around the civilization’s home star — which will eventually become a white dwarf.
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical structure that completely contains a star. The spheres also capture most of the solar output.
The spheres are named after the famous physicist Freeman Dyson.
A white dwarf is a small, dense star, usually the size of a planet.
Zuckerman believes that by searching in this way, by looking for Dyson spheres, astronomers may also be able to estimate the number of advanced civilizations in the Milky Way.
So far, astronomers have only measured a small fraction of white dwarfs.
But by this logic, if aliens build Dyson spheres around their white dwarf stars, astronomers should be able to see at least one Dyson sphere in their studies.
If not seen, it means that only a limited number of alien civilizations are building spheres around dwarves.
However, some aliens may decide not to build a Dyson sphere.
Other aliens may also build spheres around other types of stars.
But Zuckerman believes that advanced alien civilizations building Dyson spheres around their white dwarf stars are the most likely outcome, and continues to push the search in that direction.
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