Air and Space: The Weirdest Objects in the Universe

By Damond Benningfield

    Often, we are tempted to believe that unexplained astronomical phenomena are the work of intelligent aliens. And just as often, there are scientific, albeit unexpected explanations. More recently, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been looking for alien-made signs in the universe.

"NASA recently awarded a grant to a SETI project that will seek out signs of alien “technosignatures,” such as solar panel arrays on distant exoplanets. Breakthrough Listen, the largest SETI initiative to date, is thinking even bigger, searching for sophisticated engineering projects that span entire star systems or even galaxies"

    One such odd phenomena is infrared radiation. Something called a Dyson Sphere, where a species builds a megastructure around its home star to capture its energy, would make stars appear unusually bright and give off infrared radiation. Of course, this could also be caused by high rates of star formation, but those that are especially bright on NASA's infrared telescope are marked for future study.

    There are also stars with radioactive or rare elements that should not be found in large quantities or should have decayed. Most explanations involve the elements floating to the surface through radiation or a magnetic field, a neutron star collision, or movement through an element heavy area. But another explanation proposes that a species dumped its waste onto the star. In fact, people on Earth have debated dumping nuclear waste into the Sun.

    Other interesting stars flicker. This is probably because debris or something like Saturn's rings is passing around them, but it could be alien intelligence.

    Some galaxies have entire holes in them. In these areas, a few old stars exist, but there is little to no formation of new stars. This could have been the result of gravitational interactions with another galaxy or a collision with dark matter, but it could signal the expansion of a civilization. A species that is millions of years ahead of us could have built a Dyson Sphere around their star and started to expand to other solar systems.

"With new instruments and the imagination required for all scientific discovery, astronomers may find the advanced civilizations Frank Drake once dreamed of—or the most mundane of explanations for the puzzles presented by the universe."