Intelligent aliens could be piloting fastest-moving stars in the galaxy, claims new paper – The Mirror US
A researcher has proposed the idea that long-lived alien civilizations may have motivations to move elsewhere in the galaxy – and the best way to do that is by steering their binary star system.
If this were to be true, they would be part of the fastest-moving stars in the galaxy, all by using gravity for energy. Reasons for moving may be due to needing to escape an impending supernova, or need to scout our new natural resources, even if they just feel like exploring.
Due to the huge distance between stars, interstellar travel is difficult, as explained by Space.com, and not to mention extremely time consuming – so instead, aliens may decide to take their systems with them rather than leaving them behind.
Experts think that by 'accelerating' their own star means they get to keep it with them as they travel. This would then cause their star to either radiate or evaporate in one direction – and would shoot the star, along with its plants to a new location. According to Space.com, astronomers have investigated whether hypervelocity stars (stars with an extraordinarily high velocity) may have been launched by aliens – but the known candidates show no signs of artificial interference.
Philosopher Clement Vidal Vrije University Brussels in Belgium pointed out that most stars aren't solitary but instead belong to 'binary systems'. "This means we might be missing half of the potential artificially accelerated stars. Even better, binary systems offer many advantages over their solo counterparts," Vidal wrote in his paper. However these ideas haven't been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.
To explain this, he took a model system, consisting of a neutron star with a 'low-mass' star "tightly orbiting" it. The philosopher said this set up would provide the most "flexibility in steerability and thrust".
"The alien civilization would have to figure out a way to eject material from the star. This could be from asymmetric magnetic fields or from some device that causes uneven heating on the stellar surface. No matter what, the goal would be to get the star to eject more material in one direction than another. This would create thrust, pushing the binary system in the opposite direction," Vidal explained.
He added that if these civilisations were to place the machinery on or near to the neutron star, where gravity could provide energy, they could "steer the binary system".
"For example, if they activated the machine only at the exact same point in the orbit, they would send the binary system in one direction. If they left the machine activated slightly longer, they would adjust their course, pointing their movement in any direction they wished along the orbital plane. They could even steer their system in new off-orbit directions by altering the direction in which their machine was pointed, effectively changing the orbit of the neutron star around its companion," he further detailed.
To back up his ideas, the expert said there are already real systems out there that match these types of characteristics such as the "black widow" pulsar and the "redback" pulsar. However Vidal concluded that the are "unlikely" to be caused by alien engineering – it's still worth "looking in to".
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