Excess Infrared Radiation in Galaxies -- Extraterrestrial Civilizations?

An analysis of a survey of galaxies by the WISE space telescope has found 50 of these with excess mid-infrared radiation. This is just the sort of radiation expected if extraterrestrial civilizations are harnessing all the energy from their stars in dyson spheres. A certain amount of waste heat would probably be left over in even the most efficient technologies.
The challenge now is to ascertain if this radiation is truly caused by ETs, or is due to starlight absorbed by unusually large amounts interstellar dust.
Link to an article on this, below:
www.dailymail.co.uk... -energy-study-claims.html

Very cool

Very interesting. I remember Bedlam telling me about a science fiction book where dark energy (or dark matter? or something?) were signatures of intelligent ET's, but this here seems somehow more genuine.

I'm assuming what you link is legitimate work. Not tabloid.

One of the persons in the articled noted none of the mentioned 50 galaxies used more than 85 percent of their light and it could be attributed to dust (or otherwise natural factors). The person (or persons) also noted the intelligent ET's might only be emitting a small amount of this radiation-heat from their galaxy, thus remaining currently undetectable (or un-noteworthy) to us. My question is can we find a way to distinguish between dust (or other natural factors) and intelligent ET's exploiting their stars?

Maybe we need better galaxy models to determine how dust or other natural factors can emulate this effect or something.

How exactly does the mid-infrared radiation occur? I'm not a big science guy. Is it that the light hits dust particles and then the mid-infrared radiation is emitted or is it that all galaxies emit this radiation but if they have low light levels than there's excess mid-infrared radiation? Or am I wrong completely about those two things and it's something different? The article also mentions "star formations" as another possible natural explanation. I'm not sure how that works, but all stars emit "stuff", so maybe they emit differently? Extra mid-infrared?

This is hte key portion of the article:
www.dailymail.co.uk - Could 50 galaxies be hiding advanced alien life? Infrared emissions suggest beings are using stars for energy, study claims...

‘The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonised by an advanced spacefaring civilisation, the energy produced by that civilisation's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths,’ said Dr Wright.

The energy used by such a race to be noticeable would have to be huge - likely harnessing the power of a galaxy’s stars.

But Dr Wright said that ‘fundamental thermodynamics tells us that this energy must be radiated away as heat in the mid-infrared wavelengths’.

This would make them noticeable to Nasa's Wise telescope, used in the study.

It has to be very theoretical, note too where it says, 'if an entire galaxy had been colonised by an advanced spacefaring civilisation......' That's a big shout!

Wow this is amazing!!! Excellent update from what was released earlier

Well, the only thing the article fails to mention are the names of the 50 Galaxies, where are the located? How old/far away are they?? Or does anyone know? S+F

The journal article.

science.psu.edu...

15 April 2015 — After searching 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life, a team of scientists using observations from NASA's WISE orbiting observatory has found no evidence of advanced civilizations in them. "The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonized by an advanced spacefaring civilization, the energy produced by that civilization's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths -- exactly the radiation that the WISE satellite was designed to detect for other astronomical purposes," said Jason T. Wright, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University, who conceived of and initiated the research.

The research team's first paper about its Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies Survey (G-HAT), will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series on April 15, 2015. Also among the team's discoveries are some mysterious new phenomena in our own Milky Way galaxy.

"Whether an advanced spacefaring civilization uses the large amounts of energy from its galaxy's stars to power computers, space flight, communication, or something we can't yet imagine, fundamental thermodynamics tells us that this energy must be radiated away as heat in the mid-infrared wavelengths," Wright said. "This same basic physics causes your computer to radiate heat while it is turned on."

Theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson proposed in the 1960s that advanced alien civilizations beyond Earth could be detected by the telltale evidence of their mid-infrared emissions. It was not until space-based telescopes like the WISE satellite that it became possible to make sensitive measurements of this radiation emitted by objects in space.

Roger Griffith, a postbaccalaureate researcher at Penn State and the lead author of the paper, scoured almost the entire catalog of the WISE satellite's detections -- nearly 100 million entries -- for objects consistent with galaxies emitting too much mid-infrared radiation. He then individually examined and categorized around 100,000 of the most promising galaxy images. Wright reports, "We found about 50 galaxies that have unusually high levels of mid-infrared radiation. Our follow-up studies of those galaxies may reveal if the origin of their radiation results from natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization."

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

In this CBS article they completely take out the "50 galaxies" part:

To find signs of intelligent life, Penn State's Roger Griffith, another author on the paper, scoured almost the entire catalog of the WISE satellite's detections - nearly 100 million entries - for objects consistent with galaxies emitting too much mid-infrared radiation. Griffith then individually examined and categorized around 100,000 of the most promising galaxy images.

Link

I've previously posted videos of the people behind this study talking about it.

It seems appropriate that I post them again in case you didn't watch them.


Low level Google Hangout featuring the principal investigators talking about the research:



High level lecture detailing the research:




BTW: the IR excess in the remaining 50 candidates is most likely natural in origin. Nothing about them seemed to rule out star formation in stellar nurseries, etc. That's why there's only one story which overhypes the candidates while the other stories focus on the fact that of the 100,000 none had any obvious signs of widespread use of Dyson Spheres, etc.

a reply to: game over man

Typical MSM reporting.

Actual journal article: ''none from 100,000 found though 50 possible requiring more research'' (they should be clearer, it has 50 possibilities).

Daily Mail: ''possibly aliens but more research needed''

CBS: ''no aliens, none found''

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Unbelievable huh?! Glad I found it...it is in fact 50 candidates that could be either Alien Civilizations or natural phenomenon...this is the statement from the lead author of the paper.

Exposure of disinformation for sure!!!

SO why not send a probe out and measure OUR galaxy first and use that as a baseline for other galaxies?

originally posted by: bullcat
SO why not send a probe out and measure OUR galaxy first and use that as a baseline for other galaxies?

We've done that before..

Ever hear of IRAS? ISO? Spitzer Space Telescope?

They were used to measure and view our galaxy in the infrared. We know what normal IR output of different classes of stars is and have known that for a long time (decades).

BTW: The James Webb Space Telescope will also see in high resolution in the infrared.