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What makes white dwarfs interesting?


Image above): Artist's impression of the planet around the white dwarf. That planet orbits in the remnant of the nova eruption. And it would be a very cold and hostile place. But intelligent species could live in tunnels under that planet's icy core. 

When we are searching for lifeforms. We should search that from white dwarfs. There is the possibility that the planetary remnants around white dwarfs are consisting material that can confirm the existence of at least dead alien life. But there is a possibility that intelligent and technically advanced aliens could survive the nova eruption. We know that white dwarfs can have planets. Some of those planets might survive from nova eruption. But also new planets can form from nova remnants. 

Sometimes terms white and brown dwarfs are misunderstood. The white dwarf is the remnant of an old star. And our sun will turn to a white dwarf after a couple of billion years ago. A brown dwarf is a substellar object that is between a star and a planet. It cannot maintain nuclear reactions that continue all the time. But also in brown dwarfs, random nuclear reactions are possible. The brown dwarfs are that type of star their entire life. The white dwarf has been the regular star before it expanded to a red giant and erupted as a nova. 

The alien life would exist near white dwarfs. But there is one requirement. That lifeform must be intelligent that it can harvest energy from the white dwarf. So in that case the nova eruption wipes out all other than intelligent species. Or the species that intelligent species want to save. But nothing else than intelligent species that has the technology to benefit from the energy from white dwarf or maybe those species can use helium rivers as the power sources.

In the future, our sun will turn into a white dwarf. So if we want to find similar but more advanced species than we are we should search for them from the space around white dwarfs. The hypothetical civilizations can take energy by driving material to the surface of the white dwarf. 

The planets of the white dwarf can be cold and hostile. But if there is some kind of intelligent species those hypothetical aliens can have technology that makes them collect energy from white dwarfs. And they could live in the icy tunnels on those planets. The planets of white dwarfs are more mature than Earth. 

And if there were some kind of intelligent species before the star erupted those aliens could stay alive in tunnels or giant space stations in the shadows of their planet. If they will not want to make a large fleet of spacecraft and fly to other stars. That journey takes millenniums. 

And of course, the alien species would be very advanced before the star erupts. So they might limit birth before they must leave. There is also the possibility that large numbers of passengers would take their journey in the form of an embryo. That guarantees that there is no degeneration in the population of travelers. 


But civilization can also stay in the home. 


If we want to find similar species we are from other stars. White dwarfs are the most promising objects. White dwarfs are remnants of the nova eruptions and the thing that makes them interesting is that our Sun will end its life as a white dwarf. So if we want to find similar species like us but more advanced areas around white dwarfs are very interesting. 

If there were the same way intelligent species on the planet that orbits the yellow star that exploded as nova there is the possibility that the civilization would stay alive after the eruption. They might move to more distant planets and when a nova eruption happens they might wait that radiation will decrease in underground cities. Or at the giant O'Neill cylinders behind those planets. 

In that hypothesis, the theoretical civilization will not make interstellar journeys. They would stay at home and make giant Dyson spheres for securing their energy production. When the sun of the solar system where aliens live ends its life the civilization must make the decision would to stay at home or go on an interstellar journey. 


The moment when the star detonates will be the best moment to go. At that moment star releases very much of energy. And that energy can use at the beginning of the travel that can take millenniums. 


But if we think about the possibility to find intelligent life forms we must realize one thing. There must happen something that makes evolution favor intelligence. That is the only thing that causes the advance of the brain. If the planet is too stable there is no need for intelligence. Only a large number of descendants is enough. 

When we are searching for intelligent species we can try to make contact with them. But that thing is not been successful. So another way is to try to find pollution from the exoplanet's atmosphere. But being successful that alien civilization must use combustion. Things like nuclear power and renewing energy sources like solar- or geothermal energy are not causing pollution. 

But there are other models of the energy sources that are not causing any kind of pollution. In one model the red dwarf that can be in the same solar system as an alien home planet can deliver energy to alien cities on another planet. The idea is that the locked planet would offer a great position for the mega-large solar power station. That station would just transmit energy to alien cities in the form of micro- or radiowaves. 

Or the civilization can make quite a small Dyson's sphere around the red dwarf and turn its energy into laser rays. Technically advanced civilizations can live in tunnels and underground facilities on very hostile planets. Or they can make large underwater structures in giant oceans of water planets.

But if we want to find super civilizations at Kardachev scale II+ that thing means that the original home planet of that kind of civilization is very mature. There is the possibility that very old planets in the universe are no radioactive materials like Uranium. And that causes the situation that the alien race must make interstellar journeys or they must start to find some other energy source than just regular fission power. Small stars can close in Dyson's sphere and those power stations can deliver energy to the entire race. 


https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/white-dwarfs-surprise-companion/

https://www.hngn.com/articles/228059/20200217/white-dwarfs-place-find-alien-life.htm

https://www.space.com/21437-alien-life-white-dwarfs-failed-stars.html

https://www.space.com/search-alien-life-white-dwarf-stars.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf


Image: https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/astronomy/white-dwarfs-surprise-companion/


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