The Cygnus Bubble - Natural or Artificial? (Have astronomers found a Dyson sphere?)

Daily Galaxy ^ | 2/4/10

[LibWhacker]

Cygnus bubble detail_4m Mayall NOAO (1)

Is the solar-system sized bubble in the Consellation Cygnus a planetary nebulae or could it be an "AC" or astroengineering construction, also known as a Dyson sphere, named after Freeman Dyson of the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study who proposed the theory? Dyson's thought experiment suggested that in our search for advanced extraterrrestrial civilizations that Instead of radio signals we should look for spheres, which are artificial mega structures that enclose the orbit of a star, fabricated from the material of that solar system. The key is to distinguish a Dyson sphere from natural dust components. The Dyson sphere is the marker of what Kardashev calls a Type 2 civilization, which is capable of using up all the energy produced by a star. A Type three civilization uses up all the energy produced by a galaxy."

ACs are expected to have spectra similar to the black-body spectra because they re-emit all the energy that they absorb, although in the infrared range.

"Fermi Bubbles" is the term used by Richard Carrigan at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in his latest work on the search for artifacts like Dyson spheres or Kardashev civilizations. A Fermi bubble according to Carrigan would grow as the civilization creating it colonized space. Carrigan notes that, as Carl Sagan and others have observed, that the time to colonize an individual system is small compared to the travel time between stars. A civilization could engulf its galaxy on a time scale comparable to the rotation period of the Milky Way, or every 225–250 million years, and perhaps, fewer.

According to Carrigan, of the 11,224 potential sources of low range emissions identified that might be a manifestation of Dyson spheres in the Milky Way there are only 16 that have strong potential.

[2ndDivisionVet]

He makes a great vacuum cleaner, but it’s a little pricey!!

[historyrepeatz]

Indubitably, Charles.

[21twelve]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlk3jUE4zBc&feature=related

Cygnus X-1, by Rush (linked to a cool video compilation of space images, movies, etc.)

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The test is whether it emits infrared waves. If it does, we may have our first confirmation of a Dyson Sphere

[Captain Beyond]

bump

[PGalt]

Interesting theory. Thanks for posting.

[LibWhacker]

Nice!

[shibumi]

Oo! Oo! I got it! Maybe there's this really big (but invisible) interstellar adolescent, see? And .....

[Southack]

Just wait until some astronomer figures out that’s actually a picture from an old Star Trek movie...

[The Cajun]

Wonder what's the little black dot around 7:00 o'clock? Zoom in on it and it looks real, what ever it is.

[21twelve]

Hmm. That is cool. Are we sure we’re not looking at a tadpole egg floating in some water with lots of sparkly silt stirred up? (Like the “Men in Black” locker within a bus station within a locker within a bus station view of the Universe!)

[Talisker]

Oo! Oo! I got it! Maybe there's this really big (but invisible) interstellar adolescent, see? And .....

...And he becomes president?

[imjimbo]

Your tagline, together with the image, caused my computer screen to be sprayed with green tea-!

[WayneS]

Are they 100% certain it is not a Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum?

[WayneS]

Good eye, Cajun!

That little black dot is a melanoma.

The Cygnus Bubble is traveling to the Mayo clinic to have it biopsied.

That is why we’ve been able to get such good pictures of it.

It should also serve as a reminder to everyone that they should wear “sun-screen” whenever they go undulating through space.

[Mjaye]

Are they 100% certain it is not a Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum?<<<<<<<

Or perhaps a multi-faceted Spork Weasel?

[muawiyah]

That’s Galactic repair depot Cygnus X-1 Bell 83.

[broken_arrow1]

Makes a nice host for the Super Galactic Super Bowl!

[JoeProBono]