Belgian scientists point out that some 'runaway stars' we once knew may have been dominated by aliens.
In recent years, NASA has occasionally announced discoveries of hypervelocity stars, racing away as if trying to escape from their galaxy or star cluster. According to a new study, they could actually be the home of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.
According to Live Science, researcher Clement Vidal from Vrije University Brussels (Belgium) points out that most hypervelocity stars are not solitary but belong to binary star systems.
Binary star systems are places where scientists from an advanced civilization could exploit to turn the very parent star of the planet they inhabit into a form of artificial spacecraft.
For the parent star to move at high speed through space and carry their planet, they would have to find a way to expel matter from the star.
This could arise from asymmetric magnetic fields or from some devices causing uneven heating on the star's surface.
Regardless, the goal would be to make the star push more matter in one direction compared to another.
Dr. Vidal used an experimental model and pointed out the most reasonable binary star system, which includes a neutron star and a low-mass companion star orbiting the neutron star.
Neutron stars are remnants of giant stars that have died, compact yet powerful.
Around this pair, or around one of the two stars, will be the planet that the hypothetical civilization inhabits.
If these aliens place machines on or near the neutron star, where strong gravitational forces could provide available energy, they could control the binary star system by carefully turning the machines on and off.
For example, if they only activate the machines at the exact same point on the orbit, they would cause the entire star pair to be pushed in a certain direction based on the orbital plane.
They could even steer their system in different directions by changing the direction that their machinery is aimed, essentially altering the orbit of the neutron star around its companion star.
In fact, not only hypervelocity stars, NASA telescopes have even identified the existence of hypervelocity star pairs.
These are the pulsar 'black widow' PSR J0610-2100 or the 'redback' pulsar PSR J2043+1711, both undergoing significant acceleration. Dr. Vidal believes they are worth studying.
