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

[Keith Henson]

Thanks, Stuart, I am swamped till after the first of the year

Best wishes,

Keith

On Wed, Dec 27, 2023 at 11:24 AM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
> 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
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