What is this? An F-class star (having between 1.0 and 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and effective temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K) located in the constellation Cygnus, 454 parsecs (1480 light-years) away.
What is it about this star that is so frightening?
Well, the Kepler telescope observed an extremely intriguing pattern when observing this star. This observation showed that there is some structure blocking approximately 22% of the light emitted by it. And well, even for a planet as large as the gas giant Jupiter, it would only be possible to block 1% of its brightness. TrES-4, which is the largest known planet in the entire universe to date, is only 70% larger than Jupiter. In other words, this "structure" is extremely unlikely to be a planet.
The hypothesis that this megastructure was formed by comets or by the existence of numerous small bodies orbiting the star together was also discarded, along with the unlikely possibility of it being a naturally created structure. In the end, they concluded that the least improbable theory to be true, so far, is that it was an artificial structure.
Based on this, the possibility of it being a Dyson Sphere was suggested. This sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson, which would orbit a star in such a way as to completely surround it, capturing all or most of its emitted energy. From this point, the situation starts to get interesting; for this, let's briefly mention the Kardashev Scale .
The Kardashev Scale is a method proposed by the Russian/Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev to measure the degree of technological development of a civilization. This scale (updated, as Kardashev's classifications have become "archaic" with new discoveries) originally classifies civilizations into 3 types, but I will mention the 6 current ones:
- Type I - A civilization capable of harnessing all the potential energy of a planet, energy that can come from any source, be it wind energy, solar energy, kinetic energy, etc. At this level, the civilization would even be able to harness the energy generated by volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, hurricanes, and other large-scale natural phenomena, having the ability to control the planet's temperature and climate without difficulty.
- Type II - A civilization capable of harnessing all the potential energy of a star, with the ability to alter anything within the solar system, such as moving planets from their orbits or harnessing all the potential energy, in addition to the star's energy, of the planets orbiting it.
- Type III - A civilization capable of harnessing all the potential energy of a galaxy, with the ability to alter anything within it, such as moving solar systems from their orbits, forming or destroying stars, merging or splitting stars, using planets as building blocks for something larger, harnessing the potential energy of supernovas or hypernovas, ways to harness the energy of black holes or quasars, and anything else within a galaxy that is possible to manipulate.
- Type IV - A civilization capable of harnessing all the potential energy of a universe; basically, the capabilities of such a civilization are unimaginable, with speculation suggesting alterations to space-time and complete control over entropy.
- Type V - A civilization capable of harnessing all the potential energy of multiple universes, based on the assumption that the universe we inhabit is just one among many others, as some multiverse theories suggest. It's difficult to even imagine the capabilities of such a civilization.
- Type VI - This would be a civilization that lives outside of time and space, capable of creating and destroying universes very easily. If Type V was already difficult to imagine, Type VI civilization is much more so. The concept of divinity could be applied to this civilization, which could literally do anything.
Looking at this scale, the human race hasn't even reached Type I, and is quite far from it. Meanwhile, a civilization capable of building a Dyson Sphere probably fits into a Type II civilization. That is, thousands of years of evolution ahead of us, in addition to all the other types, which I question the ability of any reader, along with myself, to imagine what such civilizations could be like.
The hypothesis that a megastructure similar to a Dyson Sphere could be producing this oscillation in the star's brightness, if proven, would be classified as " the biggest news of the last 500 years ." After all, it would prove that besides not being the only intelligent life in the universe, we are like protozoa compared to the FIRST one we found. Of course, all this is just speculation, however plausible it may seem with the information we have, but this is a very interesting and somewhat frightening possible reality in my opinion.