<story><title>Comets can&apos;t explain weird &apos;alien megastructure&apos; star after all</title><url>https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28786-comets-cant-explain-weird-alien-megastructure-star-after-all</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>sandworm101</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt;&amp;gt; “The alien-megastructure idea runs wrong with my new observations,” he says, as he thinks even advanced aliens wouldn’t be able to build something capable of covering a fifth of a star in just a century. What’s more, such an object should radiate light absorbed from the star as heat, but the infrared signal from Tabby’s star appears normal, he says.&lt;p&gt;That seems a rather unambitious approach to possible alien tech.  We today clearly could not build, or think of how to build, such structures.  That isn&amp;#x27;t to say that the technology isn&amp;#x27;t possible, just that we do not understand it.  If aliens were able to create and fly structures of such size I think it safe to say they would also be in possession of tech we cannot contemplate.</text></comment>
<story><title>Comets can&apos;t explain weird &apos;alien megastructure&apos; star after all</title><url>https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28786-comets-cant-explain-weird-alien-megastructure-star-after-all</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kordless</author><text>&amp;gt; “The alien-megastructure idea runs wrong with my new observations,” he says, as he thinks even advanced aliens wouldn’t be able to build something capable of covering a fifth of a star in just a century.&lt;p&gt;Oh, really? So we are speaking for alien&amp;#x27;s abilities now because we don&amp;#x27;t believe in them or their abilities to build things? That sounds like a cognitive bias. Here&amp;#x27;s another bias in the same vein:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris …[because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping.” - Orville Wright&lt;p&gt;What Orville should have said was, &amp;quot;No flying machine will fly from New York to Paris until we develop a motor that can run at the required speed without stopping until it gets there.&amp;quot;</text></comment>