There is a star suspected to have a Dyson sphere. What would it mean if it could be confirmed?

There is a star 1,480 light-years away from the Earth. It is numbered KIC 8462852 and was discovered in 2009. Once discovered, this star attracted the interest of astronomers around the world.

KIC 8462852 is a star slightly larger than the Sun, with a mass of about 1.43 times that of the Sun and a diameter of about 3.16 times that of the Sun. A star of this size cannot be seen directly with the naked eye at a distance of 1,480 light years. Why does such an ordinary-looking star fascinate astronomers? Because this star has brightness changes, and this brightness change has two forms: periodic and non-periodic. The periodic brightness drop occurs about once every 750 days. This is a phenomenon that does not conform to common sense, because even unstable supermassive stars will not have such obvious periodic changes in brightness.

There is only one reason a star would vary in brightness so dramatically: if it is obscured by something.

What is it? Astronomers immediately thought of the Dyson sphere. The Dyson sphere is a concept proposed by American physicist Dyson. The development level of a civilization is closely related to the energy that this civilization can obtain and utilize. The higher the level of civilization, the more energy it can obtain and utilize. For example, a first-level cosmic civilization can utilize all the energy of the planet where it is located, while a second-level cosmic civilization can utilize all the energy of the star system where it is located. For example, if the earth can obtain and utilize all the energy generated by the sun, it will reach the second-level cosmic civilization.

Based on the current rate of energy consumption by humans, the energy produced by the sun every second can be used by all of humanity for millions of years, while the amount of solar energy we can receive on the surface of the earth is actually negligible.

So how can we get all the energy produced by the sun? That is to build a Dyson sphere. The so-called Dyson sphere is simply a device that can wrap the sun and collect solar energy. It can be a hollow sphere or a ring. If it is a ring, it is called a Dyson ring. Of course, this device is just a fantasy of Freeman Dyson and does not really exist, but this fantasy has been widely recognized by the scientific community. However, the fantasy is just a fantasy after all. Humans have not really discovered the existence of a Dyson sphere in the universe, and the appearance of KIC 8462852 seems to give everyone hope.

However, after years of observation and research, scientists have obtained some evidence that the brightness changes of KIC 8462852 are not caused by the obstruction of the Dyson sphere. This periodic shading phenomenon should come from the interstellar dust around the star.

This conclusion disappointed many people. It is the dream of many people to witness the existence of alien civilizations in their lifetime. But then again, if it is really confirmed that KIC 8462852 has a Dyson sphere, what does it mean? If KIC 8462852 really has a Dyson sphere, it may not be a good thing for humans. A civilization that can have a Dyson sphere is a civilization with a very high level, and the Earth civilization has not even reached the first level of civilization, so it is almost impossible to achieve communication. This is like asking Planck to explain quantum mechanics to a two-year-old child. The picture must be full of absurdism.

In fact, the gap between Earth civilization and level-two cosmic civilization is even greater than the gap between Planck and a two-year-old child. In front of level-two civilization, we can only be regarded as "bugs."

If we can find them, it means they have already found us. We don't know when they will appear in front of us. What will happen then is unpredictable. However, they will not come to rob the resources of the earth as described in science fiction. They can even collect the energy of stars. The resources on a planet are not worth mentioning at all. It is a terrible thing for such an advanced civilization to come to us, but it is also a terrible thing if they delay coming.

If a Dyson sphere really exists in KIC 8462852, and this advanced civilization has yet to visit Earth, this means that even if it has reached the level of a second-level cosmic civilization, it is still unable to cross the distance of 1,480 light years.

That is to say, no matter how a civilization develops, it cannot break the shackles of speed. Half the speed of light or one third the speed of light are probably difficult to achieve. To cross a distance of 1,480 light years at one tenth the speed of light would take 14,800 years, which is too long. That is to say, all civilizations will be bound within a certain activity area. We can never jump out of the shackles created by the universe for us, and we can never go to the edge of the universe to verify all our conjectures about the universe. This is a very desperate thing. This feeling is as helpless as "no matter how hard we try, we will eventually turn into a wisp of smoke."

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