Perhaps it is a sign of popularity of solar power that solar panels are discussed now not just by investors, scientists and heads of governments, but also by conspiracy theorists or being a bit more generous, speculative scientists!
Yeah, just read this (and this and this) and you will know what I mean:
“Aliens could be alive and well – and living on a planet powered by solar panels say scientists, including British TV presenter Professor Brian Cox.
While an eco-friendly ET may seem an outlandish idea, it follows the discovery of mysterious flashes and flickers from a distant star called KIC 846 2852.
The star’s pattern of dimming and brightening is not consistent with a planet passing in front of it.
And, with other likely causes ruled out, the scientists reckon there are two main possibilities for the phenomenon: the light is being blocked by lumps of dust or rock shed by comets – or by a massive alien construction project.
Professor Cox said it could be an orbiting mass of solar panels built by ET to harvest light needed for the aliens’ lifestyle.”
Now, putting solar power plants up in space is not such an outlandish, or should I say alien, idea. Even respected scientists including our own Abdul Kalam have reflected on it.
But extending this concept to justify light flashes from planets zillions of kilometers away, now that is quite something else.
But Prof Cox appears to be the sort of person with the motto that if he were going to speculate, he might as well speculate wild. And thus he goes to say:
‘It is a thing called the Dyson sphere, which is where an ultra-advanced civilisation basically surrounds their whole star in a sphere of solar panels, which would get every last bit of energy from the star, so they could build their big space-faring interstellar civilisation.”
Just imagine – having a massive amount of solar panels going around the sun along with our good ole earth and retrieving every bit of energy so that we can be just keep dissipating energy without a hint of guilt!
Boy, that would be a fun ride.