Our Earth is surrounded by a huge “bubble” of space debris. If you look at the map, showing all man-made objects currently in orbit, it will be clear that it flies not two or three fragments of rockets or satellites. Yes, that really, there is a giant dump! This rather sad fact has prompted the astronomer Hector Sokas-Navarro on an interesting idea, which he shared with readers of the scientific publication Astrophysical Journal.
Navarro works at the Institute astrofisica in the Canary Islands and most of their working time studying the Sun. The more satellites appear in Earth’s orbit, the more opaque it becomes, this is the “bubble” of debris and operating spacecraft. He suggested that technologically advanced aliens, which entered into the space age, too, at first will be sending a lot of spacecraft and satellites into orbit, which form a zone that can leave a mark on the light curve of the parent star during transit.
Surrounding the planet garbage Navarro called the Clarke belt and has conducted a number of studies, according to which the ten-meter telescope operating in the infrared range, it is able to register the artificial debris around Proxima b (if any). The same telescope can see the Clark belt around most planets in the system are TRAPPIST-1 — TRAPPIST-1d, -e and -f.
But with planets similar to Earth, it’s not so simple. If it orbits a star similar to the Sun, modern tools won’t be able to see around it the traces of extraterrestrial civilization. Given the pace of development of modern technology, sufficiently advanced telescopes, capable of it, will be able to locate the Clarke belt orbit another planet similar to Earth in 200 years, not before.
The only problem with the discovery of aliens in this way is that space debris can be easily confused with natural rings surrounding the potentially habitable planet. But Navarro is sure that further observations will help to distinguish one from the other, and the study of the planet itself can help in solving the problem.
Space debris will be able to give our “brothers in mind”
Vyacheslav Larionov