How an advanced civilization could stop dark energy from preventing their future exploration

 In the 1930s, astronomers realized that the universe was expanding. In the 1990s, they realized that its rate of expansion accelerated, giving rise to the "dark energy" theory. Because of this, over the next 100 billion years, all the stars in the Local Group - the part of the universe that includes a total of 54 galaxies, including the Milky Way - are expected to expand beyond the cosmic horizon. Currently, these stars are no longer observable, but inaccessible - this means that no advanced civilization can harness their energy. Dr. Dan Hooper — an astrophysicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL) and the University of Chicago — recently conducted a study that showed how a sufficiently advanced civilization could collect these stars and prevent them from expanding outward. In his research, recently published online under the title "Life versus Dark Energy: How an Advanced Civilization Could Resist the Accelerated Expansion of the Universe", Dr. Dan Hooper wondered how civilizations could reverse the cosmic process. expansion He further suggests ways in which humanity might look for signs of such a civilization.

Simply put, the theory of dark energy is that space is filled with a mysterious invisible force that opposes gravity and causes the universe to expand at an accelerated rate. The theory originated from Einstein's cosmological constant, a term he added to his theory of general relativity to explain how the universe could remain stationary rather than in a state of expansion or contraction. Although Einstein was proven wrong, thanks to observations showing the expansion of the universe, scientists returned to this concept to explain how the cosmic expansion accelerated during the last billion years. According to Dr. Hooper's research, the only problem with this theory is that dark energy will eventually become dominant and the cosmic expansion rate of the Universe will increase exponentially.

As a result, the universe expands to such an extent that all the stars are so far apart that intelligent species cannot even see them, let alone study them or harness their energy. In addition to chairing FNAL's Theoretical Astrophysics Group, Dr. Hooper is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. As such, he is well versed in the big questions of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) and how cosmic evolution affects intelligent species.

To find out how advanced civilizations could live in such a universe, Dr. Hooper first assumes that these civilizations are Type III on the Kardashev scale. Named after Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, a Type III civilization would reach galactic proportions and be able to control energy on a galactic scale. As Dr. Hooper admits, this conclusion is based on two assumptions—first, that a highly developed civilization seeks to maximize the availability of its usable energy; and second, that our current understanding of dark energy and the future expansion of our universe is broadly correct. With this in mind, Dr. Hooper began to calculate which stars could be collected by Dyson spheres and other megastructures. According to Dr. Hooper, this harvest would consist of building unusual Dyson spheres that would use energy harvested from the stars to propel them to the center of the species' civilization. High-mass stars are likely to evolve from the main sequence before reaching their central civilization destination, and low-mass stars do not produce enough energy (and thus acceleration) to avoid falling beyond the horizon.

"This gives us a very different signal to look for," Dr Hooper said. "An advanced civilization in the process of this program would change the distribution of stars in regions of space tens of millions of light years across and probably produce other signals as a result of stellar propulsion." After all, this theory not only offers a possible solution to how advanced species could survive the cosmic expansion, but also offers new avenues for the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence. As the next generation of instruments look further into the universe with greater resolution, we may be looking for hypervelocity stars all transported to the same region of space.

Could be a Type III civilization preparing for the day when dark energy takes over!