Project Hephaistos -- IV. James Webb Space Telescope Observations of Two Dyson Sphere Candidates

2026/07/10 by Erik Zackrisson, Arjan Bik, Anita Ali Asgar +11 · 2 voices
#astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR

paper · pdf

Abstract

We report on JWST/MIRI imaging and spectroscopy of two M-dwarf stars previously singled out by project Hephaistos as potential Dyson-sphere candidates (their candidates D and E) due to the presence of excess flux at mid-infrared wavelengths. We find that the infrared excess does not originate from Dysonian megastructures, or other radiation mechanisms close to these stars, but from background galaxies projected within ∼ 1 arcsec of the M dwarfs, thereby confusing previous mid-infrared photometry obtained with the WISE telescope. The candidate D background galaxy lies at redshift z≈ 0.9, appears point-source dominated in imaging and has a mid-infrared spectrum consistent with being a Hot Dust Obscured Galaxy (Hot DOG). The candidate E background galaxy lies at z≈ 0.4, displays an extended morphology with bright knots and a spectrum consistent with a dusty starburst.

Discussions

• Alien mega-structures (Dyson Spheres) harnessing power from their stars? 👽👾 naaaaaaaaa. Just some background, distant galaxies trolling astronomers. I also learned a new astronomy acronym, and it sl [bsky, 32 points, 3 comments]
• TIL astronomers are using #JWST and MIRI to search for Dyson spheres - this paper dropped on the arXiv last week arxiv.org/abs/2607.09460 (the title of the program was a much more modest "Anomalous in [bsky, 13 points, 4 comments]

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