Are There Signs of Advanced Civilizations Observed in the Sky?

A group of scientists has recently compiled a list of seven stars that may host Dyson structures around them. Could the concept of Dyson structures be the key to finding intelligent extraterrestrial life? In 2015, a star located 1,470 light-years from Earth caught the attention of scientists and media worldwide; a dim star located in the constellation Cygnus, registered in astronomical catalogs as KIC 8462852 but commonly known by its nickname, Tabby's Star. Observations of this star revealed unusual changes in the light received from it. These irregular yet systematic changes indicated that large, coordinated objects were orbiting this star, capable of creating consecutive eclipses around it. The shape and periodicity of these light changes did not align with the light variations of distant stars caused by planetary transits. One reason for this inconsistency was the uniform periodicity of these light dips, indicating that the objects causing this light dimming were all in the same orbit around the star. What caused these strange light dips around Tabby's Star? The roots of artificial bubbles around stars. In 1937, Olaf Stapledon, a science fiction writer, published a story titled 'Star Maker,' which Arthur C. Clarke later described as one of the most creative works in science fiction literature. In this book, Olaf depicted a star surrounded by a massive, artificial structure. In 1960, a physicist named Freeman Dyson, inspired by this story, attempted to show in a paper titled 'Search for Artificial Sources of Infrared Radiation' that an extraordinarily intelligent and technologically advanced civilization, due to its high energy needs, might construct such a massive structure around its parent star to harvest solar energy and transfer it to its desired planet or planets. Since then, this concept and such structures have been called Dyson structures. If such a structure has indeed been built around a distant star, it would not be observable to an observer looking from a distance of, say, a thousand light-years. However, due to the partial eclipses created by the passage of each piece of this structure in front of our line of sight and the parent star, we could witness different light fluctuations in the star's light that repeat in a coordinated manner with a uniform periodicity, similar to what was observed in the observations related to Tabby's Star. The news of the light dips observed in Tabby's Star has sparked extensive discussions about the nature of these fluctuations in scientific communities and among the public. Have we finally found signs of a civilization that is much more advanced than ourselves? The scientific community views this possibility with serious skepticism, primarily due to other plausible explanations for this phenomenon; however, this has not entirely dismissed such a possibility. Now, a group of scientists has compiled a list of seven stars that may host such structures around them. All these stars, based on previous infrared observational data, are related to stars known as M-dwarfs; stars whose mass is a maximum of 0.45% of the Sun's mass and a minimum of 0.07% of the Sun's mass, with an average radius of only about 0.3 times that of our Sun. The reason for selecting these stars for investigation is that, with the available tools, the infrared emissions related to these stars are at a level that allows for determining the possibility of such a structure existing around them. Have we really found signs of extraterrestrial intelligences? The concept of Dyson structures, while painting an attractive picture of the future of energy-needing civilization and theoretically providing one of the explanations for observing such light disturbances around distant stars, also faces serious and important criticisms. Some of these criticisms relate to the interpretation of the light curves of these stars. Although we do not yet have a precise and consensus interpretation of it, there are some more plausible natural explanations for it. For example, consider a star that, for some reason, has a planet from the family of hot Jupiters (planets with more mass than Jupiter that orbit very close to their parent star) that has undergone an internal explosion due to a collision with another mass or coming too close to the parent star, and has now created a cloud – similar to the rings of Saturn in our solar system – around its parent star. Larger remnants from such debris may create similar light curves in the star's light. Similarly, the existence of a cloud of comet nuclei that have stabilized in orbits closer to the star due to gravitational characteristics could be another explanation for these curves. In February 2021, Oumuamua, another celestial rock, or an extraterrestrial probe? Does an advanced civilization require a Dyson structure? However, aside from the interpretation of these light curves, are such structures a suitable path for advanced civilizations? Constructing such a structure, if merely for harvesting solar energy, would itself require an extraordinarily high energy expenditure that may exceed the capabilities of a civilization facing an energy crisis. On the other hand, the primary resources for such a project may require extraction from the planets, moons, and asteroids of that system, which itself implies an extraordinarily high energy expenditure. Furthermore, the assumption that a super-intelligent civilization in the future will necessarily resort to this method of energy procurement implies that we must generalize today's energy crisis on Earth to all possible civilizations. Would a future extraordinarily advanced civilization prefer – given technological capabilities – to build such a massive structure or manage its resources based on need and the inventory of renewable energy? We do not know the answer, but we know that this path is not necessarily the only path forward for future civilizations. On the other hand, a group of researchers searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life is concerned that focusing resources on finding Dyson stars, for which there are more explanations, could jeopardize the limited scientific research paths available for finding such civilizations, and that concentrating focus and capital on a low-probability matter could overshadow more effective research. Regardless of whether Dyson structures are the result of alien civilizations or natural phenomena, let us take a moment to think that humanity, which has not been on this planet for long, has reached a point in this short time, with all its mistakes and destruction and waste of resources, where it can contemplate various methods of finding alien civilizations and put them to the test. For a moment, let us imagine that if we had not been so extravagant in wasting opportunities and resources, what advancements we could have achieved by now.