Centauri Dreams

Black Hole Propulsion as Technosignature

It’s not just binary BH’s that can do this, a single fast rotating BH that is tumbling could do it as well.

Seven Dyson Sphere Candidates

A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from natural phenomena when enough stars are examined!

An Interesting SETI Candidate in Hercules

Although the presence of ET planetary-based life as we know life and don’t know it, is all, comparatively as, and less and in gradations more technologically and cognitively achieved or advanced than our species, such life, in mathematical and thermochemical terms, is a must on a vast in raw numbers but quite possibly…

The Plasma Magnet Drive: A Simple, Cheap Drive for the Solar System and Beyond

I guess we should also include a Planet Nine mission (once confirmed) among the possibilities opened up by this technology. In fact, since that planet seems to be near aphelion (otherwise we should have found it), it should also be beyond the gravitational focus of the Sun and thus any mission there could double as a…

A Visualization of Galactic Settlement

Oh good, Star Wars got it right. The Core will indeed be a nexus of galactic civilization.

‘Oumuamua, Thin Films and Lightsails

Thanks, Hamilton1. The two reports look like excellent studies. At first scan, it looks like there are still things to examine though. For example, if ‘Oumuamua is considered representative of extra-solar objects in its debris trail, then the idea that extra solar meteorites showing up, say in Greenland, is in real…

Uncertain Propulsion Breakthroughs?

A metallurgist's doubts about self-replicating probes

Thanks for this. These are the sorts of clearheaded questions that must be asked if discussions of advanced and/or extraterrestrial technologies are to move beyond pleasant speculation and “get real.”

Can life emerge around a white dwarf?

Yes the tidal forces would be a problem with the Roche limit and Hill Sphere. The planet might break apart in the life belt around a white dwarf star or crash into the white dwarf. The planet has to be too close to the white dwarf to be in the life belt.

Interstellar Mission to a Black Hole

If DM could form a BH at the center of a planet, wouldn’t that then collapse the planet into that BH, consuming it? Wouldn’t the same apply to stars, extinguishing them?

The Dipole Drive: A New Concept for Space Propulsion

It’s a fascinating concept but I’d like to see a comparison toDr. Young Bae’s laser thruster concept for solar system travel.

Is Planet Nine Alone in the Outer System?

Planet 9 might be our Ultima Thule . Hell would certainly be freezing over at 700 AU. Whether this tentative observation is Planet 9 or not, it is still an interesting observation and an example, I think, of proof that AIs will not do all our science for us. (At least not LLMs).

Can We Catch the Next ‘Oumuamua?

Awesome plan! But, how frequently are suitable targets expected to inter the inner solar system that would also be able to be reached from Earth’s L2 point?

Interstellar Flight: Perspectives and Patience

Transit time of 6,600 years; that long ago, around 4,600 BCE, the state of human civilization was devoid of technology. Hard to imagine what would happen back home on Earth during a journey of that length.