Building spaceships is not necessary when you can simply catch a ride on a fast-moving star.

You don’t have to drag your Millennium Falcon, Jupiter 2 or your USS Enterprise along with you anymore. The way that would prove to be most effective in travelling through the universe is to ride on stars.

As stated by astronomer from the University of Rochester Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback there also exists a type of star in form of a spaceship for fast movement. The concept is quite simple. When a star system is on the horizon, take a leap so that the gravity of the star can draw you in and pull you through other systems. You can decide to travel to one of these systems and start a new life on an odd planet. One day, another star will come nearer, allowing you to take a flight to another star and change your status. This can be done for as many times as one wants.

Carroll-Nellenback has come up with a model, which shows how a space-traveling civilization can extend its influence to large areas of space through associations with stars.

The story starts with a civilization that begins the process of expansion across the stars in the early stage of colonization, in the spiral arms of the galaxy. This civilization populates a few nearby star systems, much like how humans might one day colonize planets in the Alpha Centauri system or the Wolf 359 system. Whenever a fast moving star comes close enough, it uses this method to launch itself into space and travel through the galaxy meeting more and more star systems with improved conditions for hosting a civilization.

It was in 1951 when one of the greatest physicists of the twentieth century, Enrico Fermi, asked a question that is still relevant now. If there might be millions or even billions of technologically advanced civilizations in our galaxy, why did we not find any signs of their presence?This is referred to as the Fermi Paradox.

Another proposed solution to the paradox is hitchhiking as suggested by Carroll-Nellenback and the simulation that Jason Wright did. In contrast with the current models of space exploration, where it would take years for spaceships to travel from one star to another, the hitchhiking strategy proposes that instead, civilizations could travel on the wavefront of colonization.

When the wave front gets to the central region of the galaxy gets to a region where distances between stars are small, then settlements would develop at the fastest pace. This is not only visible in our Milky Way Galaxy but in other galaxies as well. As a result, the SETI should direct its attention and research towards the galactic nuclei.

Earlier calculations of how long it would take for life to reach out to the entire galaxy simply presupposes that stars do not move and that ships need to fly between stars. However, these estimates are between tens of million and billion years, which are typically shorter than the life span of a galaxy.

To us these appear as very unattainable time frames but for civilizations that have the duration and technology it can be achieved. That’s why, to achieve quick space colonization, SETI has to study the centers of galaxies.

In conclusion, it can be stated that the hitchhiking idea presents an entirely different approach as to how life could emerge and propagate across a galaxy. Thus, by narrowing down its search to the centers of galaxies, SETI can boost its odds of picking up signals from other civilizations and bringing the unknown universe to light.

“Whereis everybody?”

Specifically, Geoffrey Landis applied his percolation theory in an effort to explain why people have not seen aliens when traveling to space. He explained that not all of them would lead to the formation of new settlements and that some of the settlements, if not all, would cease to exist, thereby ceasing new formations. Based on this line of work, Landis posited that failed settlements would leave holes in the galaxy that would never again be inhabited by settlers. He went further and speculated that the Earth might be situated in one of these voids.

Everything is in Motion

Stars are not static as we have seen above. For instance, it takes the Sun 220 million years to revolve once around the Milky Way. At the present time, the closest star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4. 2 light-years away. However, this has not always been the case and will not be in the future. Scholz’s star, a red dwarf, passed at a distance of 1. 9 light-years away from the Sun at the periphery of the Oort Cloud.

In the case if there were human space travelers at that time, there could have been a chance to go to Scholz’s Star. At the moment, Scholz’s Star is approximately 22 light years away.

Bearing in mind that stars are constantly in motion, territories that are currently free of settlements will not always remain so. Stable colonies will be built and abandoned, with new life arising in new frontiers. Informed by this idea, Carroll-Nellenback, Wright, Scharf from Columbia University, and Frank from the University of Rochester established a new model of interstellar colonization and propagation.

Their model shows that once a front for settlement expansion exists, all the other star systems behind that front are also occupied. However, since settlements and civilizations do not last forever, the whole galaxy will not be colonised at once. Lacunae will exist which may go unsolved for millions of years. This could potentially give an explanation to Fermi’s question. Despite the fact that such settlements may not be in existence at the moment, it is quite possible that they existed in this region long before the dinosaurs.

Is it possible to set up such a situation?Frank and Gavin Schmidt have raised the question under the guise of their Silurian hypothesis: is it even possible that other worldly beings lived on planet earth millions or even billions of years ago?The geological record of our planet is incomplete and a lot of evidence of the ancient civilizations has been likely wiped out by erosion and other geological processes. Any remaining evidence could possibly be found in the isotopes and compounds which are contained in deep ocean sediments.

Frank and Schmidt are not claiming that aliens unequivocally lived in Earth millions of years ago straightforwardly but stressing the point that such possibility cannot be ruled out. Though there may not have been extraterrestrial life in the Solar System since then, the potential for recolonization is not completely implausible.

Kardashev Civilization Patterns

Carroll-Nellenback’s simulation offers information on possible view of other interstellar civilizations in other galaxies. In 2014–15, Wright published a series of papers which were named ‘Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies’ or G-HAT for short, with the symbol ‘Ĝ’. This investigation was involved in surveying nearly one million galaxies in an attempt to identify Kardashev type III civilizations.

The type III Kardashev civilizations are capable of utilizing energy of the whole galaxy to enclose each star with the Dyson swarms. These swarms, which gather energy, also radiate thermal infrared due to their heat production. Thus, by using data obtained from NASA’s WISE mission, Wright and his team attempted to identify K3 civilizations by looking for galaxies with extraordinary levels of infrared luminosity.

This search did not yield any K3 civilizations, proving that they do not exist. However, it should be noted that the nonexistence of K3 civilizations does not mean that there are no civilizations that are in the process of K3 formation. These civilizations may be classified as K2. 9 or 2. 8, as they have taken over most but not all of the stars in their galaxy.

According to the state of affairs that most of the spiral disc may still be unexplored while the core of the galaxy is already fully occupied, Carroll-Nellenback’s computer simulation presents a sub-K3 civilization. If a galaxy has such pattern of infrared excess, it may suggest the presence of a civilization possessing space traveling technology.

Time to Wait

There are some disclaimers involved, as Jason Wright pointed out, when talking about Carroll-Nellenback’s computer simulation of hypothetical aliens. He notes that a lot of assumptions and conjectures are made in the model.

“It is important to understand that everything in this animation is in reference to certain assumptions,” he says. ”It more specifically deals with ships launching at a certain frequency and having limited broadcast reach.

The hypothetical interstellar colonization rate would have different values depending on whether advanced starships were invented that could travel at even higher speeds or whether a certain number of starships were created that could only travel a certain distance. Also, the rate at which habitable planets in the galaxy can be colonised would also affect the expansion rate, consequently, many fewer star systems can be settled.

Continuity of civilization and settlements is another important factor which needs to be taken into account. The first disadvantage of the model is that it relies more on stars approaching us than it does on actively searching for them. Of course, there can be future missions to the neighboring stars but even in that case it will take a lot of time for a star to approach us. For example, according to the data obtained from the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite, Gliese 710, a red dwarf star, will approach Oort Cloud with distance of 2. 3 trillion kilometers (about 16,000 AU) in roughly one. 3 million years.

During the next 5,000,000 years, there will be 16 stars within 60,000,000 trillion kilometers (about 6 light years) of the sun, 97 stars within 150,000,000 trillion kilometers.

It is impossible for us to know if humans will still be around in 1.3 million years. Therefore, in addition to star hitchhiking, we’ll need to get a head start by sending spacecraft to our nearest stars in order to settle the galaxy.

Technological obsolescence

Carroll-Nellenback notes that the spacecraft equipment and a fortunate star encounter are not opposites but rather components of the same whole. Therefore, the next step for his group is to examine how changes in specificity or the amount of spacecraft technology impacts the rate of galactic expansion.

In the given interview, Carroll-Nellenback goes on to say, “Someday, technology will advance enough that peoples can colonize systems, which will give a competitive advantage. ”“Until the entire galaxy is settled, TFH will establish a technological selection pressure, after which there may be a slight regression to balance matters. ”

Another potential impact of growth in technology is the Incessant Obsolescence Postulate which has been highlighted by Marc Millis of the Ohio Aerospace Institute. This theory shows how future generations of explorers may arrive centuries or millennia after the first wave, only to find that their exact species was there waiting for them, having simply traveled there faster.

What does this portend for the human race in the future?It is evident that the expansion of a galaxy will also come with challenges. Will they act before us or, on the contrary, will we act before them?Interstellar travel with the purpose of colonization is the only known method to preserve humanity existence. When tailored over many worlds, the likelihood of outright extermination by catastrophes is reduced. Even if some settlements may struggle in various planets, others will survive, although only for some time. The idea of safety in numbers by colonizing other planets or settling on different areas of space to avoid risks threatening our existence appears to be somewhat appealing to people nowadays.

The diaspora could start if only we can transfer our selves to the nearest stars and then leave it to the task of colonizing the universe.

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