Bizarre theory suggests alien civilizations could steer entire star systems

As the universe ages, so too do its stars. The Sun, our life-giving star, will eventually fade, plunging Earth into an eternal winter.

However, there might be alien civilizations — far beyond our comprehension — that could transcend the limits of the stellar life cycle.

One audacious solution is transforming a star into a colossal engine, propelling it across the galaxy to a new, vibrant system. This is the bizarre concept of a “binary stellar engine.”

A recent paper, which is not yet peer-reviewed, puts forth this theoretical idea.

A binary stellar engine could be a potential solution for a long-lived civilization to migrate to a new star system as its home star ages.

“A long-lived civilization will inevitably have to migrate towards a nearby star as its home star runs out of nuclear fuel. One way to achieve such a migration is by transforming its star into a stellar engine, and to control its motion in the galaxy,” Clement Vidal, researcher and philosopher at the Vrije University Brussels in Belgium, wrote in the paper,

Hypervelocity stars

Space.com reported that advanced civilizations may seek interstellar travel for various reasons, such as escaping a dying star or exploring new resources. However, the scale of interstellar distances renders direct civilization transport infeasible.

Therefore, the alien civilization might consider a radical solution: moving their entire binary star system.

For instance, astronomers have long investigated hypervelocity stars, which move at incredibly high speeds. Surprisingly, these fascinating celestial objects may even race out of the galaxy entirely.

Their extreme velocities have sparked speculation about their origins, including the possibility of artificial propulsion by elusive advanced civilizations.

The difficulty lies in detecting technosignatures that might indicate the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence. For this reason, so far, no convincing candidates have been found that could be attributed to alien species.

“We conclude that looking for technosignatures of stellar engines has taken two roads: on the observational side, hypervelocity stars have been the target of such searches, but without good candidates. On the theoretical side, stellar engine concepts have been proposed but are poorly linked to observable technosignatures,” Vidal, the sole author, wrote.

Exploring binary star systems

In a recent paper, Vidal highlights the potential of binary star systems as platforms for advanced civilizations.

Binary star systems, where two stars orbit each other, are common in our galaxy. Life could potentially arise on planets orbiting either star.

This suggests that a civilization in such a system might consider engineering its entire binary system for interstellar travel.

The new study’s model explored the neutron star and its low-mass companion.

“We propose mechanisms for acceleration, deceleration, steering in the orbital plane and outside of the orbital plane,” the study noted.

One intriguing candidate for a binary stellar engine is a spider pulsar. This exotic system consists of a rapidly spinning neutron star and a low-mass companion star. The neutron star's intense radiation strips material from its companion.

To propel their binary star system, an advanced civilization would need to manipulate the star's mass ejection.

This could be achieved through methods like asymmetric magnetic fields or focused energy beams, causing the star to expel more matter in one direction than another. This imbalance would create a thrust force, propelling the entire system forward.

By harnessing the neutron star's immense gravity, an advanced civilization could precisely steer their binary system.

Certain real-world binary systems, like the "black widow" and "redback" pulsars, exhibit acceleration. While it's unlikely that these accelerations are due to alien engineering, studying them can provide valuable insights into the potential behaviors of stellar systems.

The study is not yet published in a scientific journal and can be found on a pre-print server.