Re:NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to E...
by maaku on Friday July 24, 2015 @12:41AM
(#9940144)
They can see stars. There wouldn't be stars in a type 2 civilization. There would be amorphous blackbody spectra which we do not see.
Re:NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to E...
by rybosome on Friday July 24, 2015 @02:35AM
(#9940394)
That assumes that civilizations derive power by encasing their host star in a Dyson sphere, which is not a foregone conclusion; that prediction was based on our current understanding if technology. Think of Huygens who imagined that Venusians sailed the seas on ships held together with hempen rope.
Re:NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers Bigger, Older Cousin to E...
by vectorjohn on Friday July 24, 2015 @04:39PM
(#9945033)
An "amorphous blackbody" source, from anything reasonably distant, just looks like a smaller star. There are a bunch of if's and unknowns involved, but it could be maybe possible to detect a Dyson sphere. This[1] article talks about it. The upshot is that it is nowhere near blindingly obvious, and we don't currently have the ability to differentiate between a natural or artificial infrared source.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere#Search_for_extra-...
I'm sorry, but that's way off.
Our current telescopes can't even see the majority of the exoplanets in our galaxy; we are made aware of their existence by observing the behavior of their host star (wobbling/dimming). Unless something is extremely close, unfathomably enormous, or emitting/reflecting large amounts of electromagnetic radiation (light, radio, etc.) that isn't bent/filtered/reduced to noise, then we are completely unaware of it.