Duncan Forgan of the University of St Andrews, Scotland, published a paper explaining how a communication system between advanced civilizations in space can work.
They can use the so-called transit method - the same one with which modern astronomers find exoplanets in space.
Forgan's research is published under the heading Exoplanet Passage as a Basis for Interstellar Communication.
The scientist points out that using the knowledge of how exoplanets revolve around their stars, you can theoretically simplify the very difficult task of transmitting accurate signals over long distances.
Perhaps the very fact that highly developed civilizations use such a complex communication system is the reason why we still have not “heard” the aliens, the author of the hypothesis admits.
Space Accuracy
Forgan suggests that highly developed civilizations undoubtedly want to communicate with their own kind. But the colossal distances that separate the islands of mind in space make such communication difficult.
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Duncan Forgan believes that the existence of the galactic Internet is mathematically possible / Future Leadership Institute
The task of establishing interstellar communication raises two problems, the scientist argues - time and energy consumption.
The amount of energy required to transmit a message over long distances using a radio signal is enormous. In the case of optical signals, less energy is required, but the detection of such a signal requires time consistency.
In this regard, according to Forgan, the transit method has a much greater potential. The one with which astronomers search for exoplanets.
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The essence of the transit method is in observing periodic drops in the brightness of stars that have planets. The latter, making a revolution around their star, partially obscure it, which leads to a decrease in luminosity. In some cases, these observations even make it possible to determine whether the planet has an atmosphere and what its approximate composition is.
Forgan believes that the transit method could serve as the basis for the creation of a "galactic Internet."
For example, he argues, alien civilization A can communicate with civilization B as follows. If B observes the planetary system A, then A can transmit accurate signals towards B just at those moments when the planet in the system passes "over" the star.
Or A can even build a special large cosmic structure that will attract B's attention by passing the star.
In itself, the presence of some structure that causes periodic attenuation of a star may already be a signal that a civilization that is open to communication lives in this system, Forgan concludes.
Seeing such a phenomenon, other advanced civilizations will understand that they have a potential new “interlocutor”.
Forgan calculated what the rate of exchange of accurate signals could be when "passing" within the so-called Galactic habitable zone (the region of the Milky Way, in which, according to modern science, the emergence of life is most likely).
The distance from one end of the habitable zone to the other end is 20 kiloparsecs. This means that when moving at the speed of light, the signal will take about 60 thousand years to overcome this distance.
Advanced civilizations can build megastructures around stars to attract the attention of other civilizations
It is extremely important that such a signal is very timely, otherwise it will simply warm up with its addressee, the researcher concludes.
And just knowing the periodicity of exoplanets "passing" can provide such a high accuracy.
Forgan used graph theory to calculate that in one million years, all advanced civilizations in the Milky Way's habitable zone could create a fully connected network to communicate with each other. Moreover, all of them do not have to communicate directly, they can relay signals for each other, just like intermediate servers do it on the modern Internet.
Joining this network will certainly require civilization to reach a certain technological level. In turn, this protects the network from "cultural pollution," Forgan argues. He means that those who have not reached the required level of civilization development simply do not have a chance to learn about other civilizations that are many times superior to them.
In essence, Forgan uses the same idea that the famous Soviet science fiction writer Ivan Efremov described in his novel The Andromeda Nebula. This is the idea of the Great Ring, which the Earth entered, having reached a certain phase of technological development. On this Ring, civilizations transmitted signals to each other, sharing knowledge and cultural baggage.
Some experts saw Forgan's hypothesis as a parallel with the recently discovered anomaly of the star KIC 8462852, the luminosity of which periodically falls due to the unknown giant structure that revolves around it.
This anomaly was first recorded in 2015, and then observations in the spring of 2017 confirmed that it still exists. At the same time, astrophysicist Tabeta Boyadzhian, who owns the honor of the discovery of the anomaly, is convinced that it is too early to talk about aliens.
Perhaps this anomaly is just a proof of the validity of Forgan's hypothesis.
Weak spots
However, Forgan himself believes that his hypothesis is not devoid of weaknesses. And, perhaps, needs to be brought to mind.
In particular, there is a question about the periodicity of signals. They can be sent only when the receiving side fixes the "passage" of the megastructure against the background of the star. Actually, the "passing" period can be changed later, but it is not very clear how to inform the "interlocutors" about the change in the period.
There is also the question of stellar orbits. They tend to change, some stars leave the "habitable zone" for a while, and then return to it.
In addition, Forgan admits that he did not consider binary stars in his work, as well as the question of how dense star clusters in the galaxy would affect the operation of such a system.
Planetary orbits inside stellar systems may also be unstable, or introduce a factor of unpredictability.
For example, the recently popular hypothesis about planet X in the solar system is based on the assumption that a mysterious planet has a periodicity of rotation around the sun in tens of thousands of years and moves in a very curved orbit.
For distant aliens observing the solar system, its "passage" will be a surprise.
Forgan's hypothesis is currently being discussed in the scientific world. A number of skeptics oppose this hypothesis, but more often than not because of the absence of double stars and planets with a large rotation period in the calculations.
So, according to the famous astrophysicist Avi Loeb from Harvard University, the construction of such a communication system is hardly justified in principle. Any civilization that has reached a high level of development will want to leave its planet, he believes. There is little point in communications that require tens of thousands of years of waiting for a response.
Nevertheless, Forgan believes that the system of global communication he considered is mathematically feasible.
Perhaps, at any given time, only a few civilizations are located “correctly” relative to each other, so that their communication was possible. But nevertheless, such a network has a cumulative effect and once carried out "handshake" makes it possible to communicate in the future, the scientist states.