Yes. This has been theorized, but with the obvious limitation of building anything big enough to attenuate the sun’s output to a visible degree.
Right now we look for periodic dimming of distant stars, in order to ID exoplanets as they orbit and block light. We also look for any wobble from the gravitational pull of a large orbiting body, like Jupiter-sized things.
As for artificial dimming, that more or less falls under the concept of a “Dyson Swarm/Sphere”, and is something we’re keeping an eye out for too. Your signal concept would be carefully orchestrated windows in that swarm, as it orbits. But the energy and sheer mass requirements (measured in substantial fractions of whole planets) are at a level of civilization well beyond anything we can do at present. So there may be something out there, but we’re in no position to do the same.
Assuming signals could be interpreted on the other side your looking at a 2.5 million year ping to send something to Andromeda.
Fuckkkking lagggg
“Oh you don’t like that latency? Is the speed of light too slow for you, motherfucker? You try building a universe without time!”
— God, probably
Still has better ping than my CS2 teammates
Look up The Fermi Paradox.
In this case basically, even if you could do this, which practically we couldn’t, there won’t be anyone to hear it and if there is we won’t be here to get the response.
Within the Fermi Paradox is the Dark Forest Hypothesis, essentially: we can’t see other civilizations doing this, and the theory is that if they did they are wiped out immediately by other civilizations.
The Three Body Problem is a good novel exploring this.
It is akin to being invisible in a dangerous place and then turning on a flashlight and giving your position away to predators.
Man, I was hoping this book series would get a mention here. Blocking out the sun as a means of transmitting a message is something that happens in the series. Or, it’s talked about, at least. It’s been a while since I’ve read it.
Tap for spoiler
It was using a high power radio transmission through the corona of the sun to act as a lens to magnify the signal, essentially turning our sun into a lighthouse. The shit that happens in the third book is mind melting in comparison. Dimensional attacks (shifting your dimension downwards) from 3D to 2D, by a potentially multidimensional entity, ironically unrelated to the original antagonists, and thus confirming the Dark Forest Hypothesis.
I probably should just read the novel but was was the predatory motivation? Resources?
It’s complex. Essentially our two systems were close enough to traverse with their technology and it was worth their while due to their systems instability.
The title “Three Body Problem” is referencing their systems three suns and their world’s unstable orbit.
It’s worth the read.
Hypotheticly yes, but you would need something very big to block the light or reduce it. Planet sized for example, this is one way we detect planets around other stars, by measuring how much the light dims.
Another potential problem is that (at leas according to this wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nearest_galaxies) the closest galaxy is around 33000 light years away. So any signal we send will take 33000 years to get there and any potential return would take the same amount of time, so 66000 years in total. That is far longer than any human civilization exists
First part, wouldnt that only depend on the amount of light that you need to block for them to detect and couldn’t you place the shutter further away to reduce its size?
Also, name a faster way to transmit data intergalaxtically
Edit: also, since we are already transmitting light couldn’t we just send images. If life such as us is who we want to reach wouldnt it only make sense to design for our own light receptors?
I am willing enter the dumbass territory here, but - raido waves, being electromagnetic, and light travel at the same speed. Even if there is technically a difference, it is probably insignifact for the amount of distance each would have to cover before it can effectively transmit anything.
The convenience of a radio signal is that the transmitter is much easier to point in different directions, primarily because it’s a lot smaller than a star, but also because it can (at least in theory) be pointed in directions normally blocked by other celestial bodies. Given the position and orbital physics of a solar system, it would insanely difficult to position something directly “above” or “below” the Sun, let alone something as big and technologically advanced to block enough light, at an adequate frequency, to transmit any data. While a radio transmitter can be launched into space and positioned sufficiently far from other objects in the solar system to send data into various points of space. There can even be multiple such satellites, for all sorts of directions, coupled with repeaters and everything, while we only have one star in the system.
Of course, radio also depends on the receivers, even regardless of the data transmitted, but I believe in aliens, they’ll figure something out.
