Summary
The podcast explores the scientific feasibility of detecting the Death Star, a fictional moon-sized battle station from the Star Wars universe. The discussion begins with an analysis of the Death Star's dimensions and energy output, estimating it to be 120 kilometers in diameter and capable of producing a superlaser with an energy output equivalent to the sun's energy over a week, condensed into just three seconds.
Astronomers have considered the possibility of identifying alien megastructures like the Death Star using current detection methods. The transit technique, commonly used to find exoplanets, could theoretically reveal the Death Star as it passes in front of a star. However, due to its small size relative to planets, the transit signal would be too faint for current telescopes to detect. The conversation also highlights that if the Death Star were to fire its superlaser, the resulting infrared spike from the destruction of a planet could be detectable, as could the warm debris field left behind.
The hosts conclude that while direct detection of the Death Star remains unlikely, there are scenarios, such as the laser beam missing its target, that could lead to detectable signals. They suggest that if the beam were to travel vast distances, it could still be perceived under specific conditions, making the Death Star a fascinating subject for both scientific inquiry and science fiction storytelling.
Show Notes
To celebrate the release of Star Wars Rogue One this weekend, let's ask the question - could we detect the Death Star with our current telescopes? Remarkably astronomers have been thinking about the detectability of alien megastructures, such as the Death Star, for many years and we can apply some scientific thinking to get to the answer.::More about this Video::► Companion video on Martin Archer's channel, "Is the Death Star a Star?": https://youtu.be/Q4CKSekJzxk► Kipping & Teachey 2016, "A Cloaking Device for Transiting Planets": https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.08928► Cool Worlds video by Alex Teachey about our laser cloaking system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Pqqf_6J9w► Most recent results from exomoon hunting, Kipping et al. 2015, "The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK): V. A Survey of 41 Planetary Candidates for Exomoons": https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05555► Cool Worlds video update on the search for exomoons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3VQ0PdoR3M► Freeman Dyson's original paper on Dyson Spheres, "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation": http://science.sciencemag.org/content/131/3414/1667► Cool Worlds video explaining "What is an Alien Megastructure?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYHVCW3BkHU::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.Déjà vu? Professor Avi Loeb has sparked controversy by suggesting - again - that a recently detected interstellar body passing through the Solar System (3I/ATLAS) could be an alien spacecraft. Today, we dive into what he his claiming and whether it holds up - just the science.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Jason Wright for fact checking.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman & J. Murph.REFERENCES► Avi Loeb's blog: https://avi-loeb.medium.com► Hibberd, Crowl & Loeb 2025, "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213► Loeb 2018, "Six Strange Facts About`Oumuamua": https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.08832► Amrhein et al. 2019, "Scientists rise up against statistical significance", Nature, 567, 305-307: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9► Tonry et al. 2018: "ATLAS: A High-Cadence All-Sky Survey System", PASP, 130, 064505: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00879► Loeb, Hibberd & Crowl 2025: "Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402► Loeb & MacLeod 2024, "Interstellar meteors from the tidal disruption of rocky planetson eccentric orbits around M dwarfs", A&A, 686, A123: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09399► Hopkins et al. 2025, "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model", ApJL accepted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318► Belyakov et al. 2025, "Palomar and Apache Point Spectrophotometry of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas", RNAAS, 9, 149: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11720► Jewitt et al. 2025, "Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS": https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02934► Dorman et al. 2013, "The Spatial Distribution of C2, C3 and NH in Comet 2P/Encke", ApJ, 778, 140: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/140/pdfMUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist.0:00 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Two3:38 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Three6:01 Triad - Reverence7:37 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four10:30 Jeremy Soule - Silent Footsteps13:15 Jeremy Soule - Dragonsreach15:40 Jeremy Soule - Under the Ancient Sun18:47 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Five20:46 Hill - The MeekCHAPTERS0:00 Intro4:35 Trajectory6:04 Incogni7:37 Close Encounters10:50 Speed13:24 Size23:38 Outro#CoolWorlds #3IATLAS #Interstellar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices