STARSET_MirrorRogue Planets In Our Galaxy Might Be Massive Alien Spaceships
Many scientists currently searching for traces of extraterrestrial life focus on planets orbiting within the habitable zones of their stars, where liquid water might exist. Now, a researcher has proposed a mind-boggling alternative that turns this convention on its head: What if alien civilizations learn to use free-floating “rogue” planets, which are not bound to any star, to traverse across interstellar distances? And how might we try to spot these extraterrestrials wandering across the dark patches of the galaxy, if they do exist?
目前，许多科学家正在寻找地外生命的踪迹，他们将重点放在围绕其恒星宜居带运行的行星上，那里可能存在液态水。现在，一位研究人员提出了一个令人难以置信的替代方案，颠覆了这一传统：如果外星文明学会使用自由浮动的“无赖”行星（不受任何恒星约束）穿越星际距离，会怎么样？如果这些外星人确实存在的话，我们该如何发现它们在银河系的黑暗区域游荡呢？
This concept of “cosmic hitchhikers” is the brainchild of Irina Romanovskaya, a professor of physics and astronomy at Houston Community College who outlines how “extraterrestrial civilizations may travel from their home worlds to free-floating planets, and how they may transfer from their free-floating planets to other planetary systems” in her recent study published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.
“宇宙搭便车者”这一概念是休斯顿社区学院物理学和天文学教授伊琳娜·罗曼诺夫·斯卡亚的创意，她在最近发表在《国际天体生物学杂志》上的研究中概述了“地外文明如何从其家园旅行到自由浮动的行星，以及如何从自由浮动的行星转移到其他行星系统”。
“Almost 10 years ago, when reading about discoveries of free-floating planets, I thought of a hypothetical scenario of a free-floating planet approaching the Solar System,” Romanovskaya said in an email to Motherboard. “There are no traffic lights in the Galaxy. If the Solar System happens to be in the way of some free-floating planet, the planet will not stop at the red light. It will fly right through the Solar System. The probability of such an event would depend on how many free-floating planets exist in our Galaxy, which at that time remained to be estimated.”
罗曼诺夫·斯卡亚在给研究中心的一封电子邮件中说：“大约10年前，当我读到关于自由漂浮行星的发现时，我想到了一个假设的场景，一个自由漂浮的行星正在接近太阳系。”。“银河系中没有红绿灯。如果太阳系恰好挡住了某个自由漂浮的行星，该行星将不会在红灯处停下。它将直接穿过太阳系。发生这种事件的可能性将取决于我们银河系中存在多少自由漂浮的行星，这在当时尚待估计。”
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