[ExI] References for Alien Megastructure Hypothesis regarding Boyajian's Star

[Stuart LaForge]

On 2023-12-26 12:24, Henry Rivera via extropy-chat wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Dec 26, 2023, at 12:08 PM, Keith Henson via extropy-chat
>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> 
>> 24 other blinking stars
>> in a cluster around Tabby's star
> 
> Keith, do you have an online reference for the 24 other objects
> detected? I can’t seem to find one.

Schmidt, E. (2022). A Search for Analogs of KIC 8462852 (Boyajian’s 
Star): A Second List of Candidates. The Astronomical Journal, 163:10 
Retrieved from 
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=physicsschmidt

> Last I read, large objects causing the dimming of Tabby’s star was
> ruled out after astronomers noticed the dimming was more pronounced in
> ultraviolet than infrared. Any object bigger than a dust grain would
> cause uniform dimming across all wavelengths, apparently.
> 
> "This pretty much rules out the alien megastructure theory, as that
> could not explain the wavelength-dependent dimming," lead author Huan
> Meng of the University of Arizona said in a statement [1]. "We
> suspect, instead, there is a cloud of dust orbiting the star with a
> roughly 700-day orbital period."

The authors of the paper you cite are astronomers and not solar-cell 
engineers or exobiologists. Wavelength-dependent dimming only rules out 
alien megastructures if those megastructures were built by aliens whose 
solar cell technology is more primitive than our own which seems 
ludicrous. Our newest generation of solar cells made of Petrovskite are 
almost transparent to infrared and would reproduce the spectrum of 
Tabby's star to the resolution that they have measured it.

The spectrum of Boyajian's star while dimming:

Elsie_Bayes-x2t0k0.png (750×672) (bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com)
Note that B is blue light, r' is red light, and i' is infra-red. Figure 
courtesy of What We’ve Learned About Boyajian’s Star II: Data and 
Interpretation | AstroWright (psu.edu)

The absorption spectrum of perovskite-based semi-transparent solar 
cells:

nz0c00417_0001.gif (500×384) (acs.org)

Which was found at Semitransparent Perovskite Solar Cells | ACS Energy 
Letters

Since we have already invented solar cells that are transparent to 
infrared light, Dyson-type megastructures need not be opaque to IR. It 
is just that NASA astronomers are too specialized to know that.

Melanin which the biopigment that black fungi use to derive energy from 
ionizing radiation in a manner similar to photosynthesis would also 
satisfy the absorption spectrum of Boyajian's star:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-16063-z

Stuart LaForge