Scientist Proposes Using Entire Planet as Spaceship to Different Star System

It would take over four years to get to the nearest star system.

It's much easier to escape a solar system than it is. An advanced civilization could use an entire planet as a giant spaceship according to a new paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology.

A rogue planet could act as a shelter, allowing a civilization to leave its host star behind.

I propose that extraterrestrial civilizations may use free-floating planets as transportation to reach, explore, and colonize planetary systems.

Nature may have accidentally done that by shooting rogue planets with oceans. The Oort Cloud is believed to be home to tiny, icy planets in the solar system.

It could provide everything needed to survive the long journey if we took over such a world.

She argued that free-floating planets can provide constant surface gravity, large amounts of space and resources.

The astronomy professor suggests advanced civilizations may have already developed technologies to make a planet hospitable if it were too dark or inhospitable.

Romanovskaya thinks that aliens could one day use objects like Sedna, a dwarf planet in the deep solar system, as means of escape.

One potential problem with hitching a ride on a rogue planet is that its core could run out of heat and eventually fail to sustain oceans of liquid water.

They are far away from any other resources that are important for a civilization's survival.

extraterrestrial civilizations would use the free-floating planets as transportation to reach and colonize other planetary systems instead of making them their permanent homes, Romanovskaya concludes.

The theory raises the possibility that SETI researchers could try to spot aliens using a planet as a transportation device.

I propose possible technosignatures and artifacts that may be produced by extraterrestrial civilizations using free-floating planets for interstellar migration and interstellar colonization, as well as strategies for the search for their technosignatures and artifacts, Romanovskaya wrote.

It is possible for us to catch a glimpse of a civilization during its great escape, and perhaps learn a thing or two, in case the Sun threatens the Earth by turning into a deadly red giant in the distant future.

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