Survival of the fittest – we are all aware of this phrase. Now, what do we do to survive in a catastrophic situation? Well, we stock foods, find a safe shelter or maybe even build giant Arks to save as many lives as possible during the catastrophe, as was seen in the movie 2012 that showed the end of the world as we know it. However, that's just us. Aliens have a different strategy to deal with future catastrophe – hoarding the stars.
It is possible that in order to maintain the balance following a future possible cosmic energy shortage, caused by the accelerating expansion of the universe, a super-advanced extraterrestrial civilization could pull stars from different galaxies and just take them home, proposes theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper at arXiv.org.
Although it sounds kind of serious, it's actually an unconventional, which might take place in a distant future. According to the paper, about 100 billion years from now, "all stars residing beyond the Local Group" in the universe will be isolated and resources from the rest of the universe will be inaccessible for each of them. "We'll be in this very dark, lonely place where we won't be able to see other galaxies," opines North Carolina State University's theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack, reported Science News. As per the report, this isolation will be caused by a mystifying "dark energy," because of which the universe is expanding faster.
Now, this situation limits the amount of energy, which in the future, could be extracted from the stars. Advanced extraterrestrial civilizations might be able to store that of the stars by encircling them with massive, hypothetical structures called Dyson spheres. However, the fast expansion of the universe is one day going to make it impossible to even observe the stars, residing out of that civilization's own habitat.
Aliens that would have such advanced technology might be willing to reserve as much energy as possible by launching spacecraft to obtain the stars before the said cosmic isolation starts.
However, the study doesn't really mention how an extraterrestrial civilization might the stars or how the energy will be stored once it's captured. According to Hooper, it's as hard for us to speculate about such powerful alien beings, as it was for the ancient cavemen to anticipate how an automobile might run.
Although we don't have any evidence yet that points out to the fact that such a super intelligent alien society exists; however if the aliens are indeed harvesting stars, "this would not be a subtle activity," believes Hooper. Maybe the scientists and other experts will be able to detect whether or not the stars are being dragged across space. A shortage of a particular type of stars in the universe could be a sign.
Whatever it is that lies in the future, don't forget to enjoy a night beneath a beautiful starry sky; at least while they are still there!
