Signals from a Dying Civilization

[Dryson]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-catches-a-ring-of-stellar-wildfire

After reading the article at the link above that discusses two galaxies merging together I started to think.

If two galaxies are merging, then there is going to be a lot of destruction as stars, planets and black holes all compete for the space that they are trying to occupy.

If an alien civilization did exist in both of the galaxies, should be set our satelites to monitor the Big Goodbyes that would be transmitted as each civilization hopes that its existence is found by someone else?

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Collisions between stars are extremely unlikely when galaxies collide - space is big, really big etc. - the same goes for black holes, which are much smaller for their mass. The main danger would be collisions between gas clouds giving rise to massive stars, which subsequently explode as supernovae a few million years later.

 

[Santaman]

This galaxy is set to merge/collide with the Andromeda galaxy, all in a days work on a universal level.. and like Asbo said, maybe a star here or there will be bumping into eachother but otherwise it is all not very spectacular, maybe the merging of the two super large black holes in the center of each galaxy may at least create some astronomical fireworks.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Yes, I expect the accretion disks and disrupted nearby stars orbiting the black holes will power up the galactic nuclei for many millions of years should they approach each other closely enough. Gas clouds less so as their density is too small and their size too extended. The "collision" will take billions of years before everything settles down again. It's a far longer time scale than any human life span or probably any civilisation life span.

 

[Silvercrest]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-catches-a-ring-of-stellar-wildfire
If an alien civilization did exist in both of the galaxies, should be set our satelites to monitor the Big Goodbyes that would be transmitted as each civilization hopes that its existence is found by someone else?

Goodbyes that were sent 200 million years ago. What would they say?

 

[BillJ]

Goodbyes that were sent 200 million years ago. What would they say?

"Check out our light show!!!"

We'll be long dead as a civilization before a plea for help ever made it to us.

 

[Silvercrest]

Don't be too sure. If they were advanced enough, they could send warnings of future events.

"Watch out and get all your large reptiles under cover! An asteroid will impact Mexico on such-and-such date! If this happens, it'll force the mammals to evolve into two-legged forms. They'll invent nuclear weapons, global warming, Kim Kardashian, and Twitter! It'll be the end of another world!
"What?"

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

So what does happen if two black holes collide?

 

[Santaman]

I guess they'll merge and become an even larger black hole.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I guess they won't be phoning home to see if they left the gas on.

 

[Finn]

https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-catches-a-ring-of-stellar-wildfire

After reading the article at the link above that discusses two galaxies merging together I started to think.

If two galaxies are merging, then there is going to be a lot of destruction as stars, planets and black holes all compete for the space that they are trying to occupy.

If an alien civilization did exist in both of the galaxies, should be set our satelites to monitor the Big Goodbyes that would be transmitted as each civilization hopes that its existence is found by someone else?

There will be very little stellar collisions when two galaxies merge. The stars would mostly move away, around, etc not to mention the space between stars are immense.

 

[XCV330]

Any extremely advanced civilization capable of sending out a goodbye that could be decoded at intergalactic distances would most likely be able to simply virtualize, shut down and wait out whatever trouble was occurring. Most civilizations at that level might be doing that anyway, since they'll get more done once the background temperature declines. In the meantime they can have various automated functions getting their infrastructure ready for the long haul. We're in a very very brief flashbulb era of space-faring civilizations.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Any extremely advanced civilization capable of sending out a goodbye that could be decoded at intergalactic distances would most likely be able to simply virtualize, shut down and wait out whatever trouble was occurring. Most civilizations at that level might be doing that anyway, since they'll get more done once the background temperature declines. In the meantime they can have various automated functions getting their infrastructure ready for the long haul. We're in a very very brief flashbulb era of space-faring civilizations.

Depends on how advanced, would they be Culture level advanced?

 

[XCV330]

Depends on how advanced, would they be Culture level advanced?

good question. i had not really thought about it from that standpoint.