What if the universe wasn’t the beginning? Long before the Big Bang, before the first stars ignited, and before time even had a direction, there were entities already lurking in the void.
Tonight, we’re diving into 20 beings that existed before the universe itself. From cosmic architects who engineered life in the stars to \.
“Two things can happen: Either the planet gets very, very close to the binary, suffering tidal disruption or being engulfed by one of the stars, or its orbit gets significantly perturbed by the binary to be eventually ejected from the system,” said Dr. Mohammad Farhat.
Why is it so rare to find exoplanets orbiting two stars, also called circumbinary planets (CBPs)? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the celestial processes responsible for the formation and evolution of CBPs. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand solar system and planetary formation and evolution, which could narrow the search for life beyond Earth.
For the study, the researchers used a combination of computer models and Einstein’s theory of relativity to simulate the formation and evolution of CBPs. For example, the researchers explored the interaction between the CBP and its binary star, resulting in one of three outcomes: stable orbit, ejection, or consumption by the binary star. The reason Einstein’s theory of relativity was used as part of the study was because it calls for objects to have their orbit perturbed the closer they orbit to a larger object, like a star.
A common example that’s used for the theory is of a trampoline with objects falling inward when a large body is in the middle of it. Essentially, stars have “instability zones” where planets get consumed if they orbit too close. In the case of CBPs, the astronomers found that of the 14 known CBPs out of more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets, 12 orbit just beyond the instability zone and none of the 14 have orbits less than seven days. The researchers concluded that a common phenomenon in astronomy called the three-body problem is responsible for the lack of CBPs.
What if advanced civilizations aren’t absent—they’re just waiting? What if they looked at our universe, full of burning stars and abundant energy, and decided it’s too hot, too expensive, too wasteful to be awake? What if everyone else has gone into hibernation, sleeping through the entire age of stars, waiting trillions of years for the universe to cool? The Aestivation Hypothesis offers a stunning solution to the Fermi Paradox: intelligent civilizations aren’t missing—they’re deliberately dormant, conserving energy for a colder, more efficient future. We might be the only ones awake in a sleeping cosmos.
Over the next 80 minutes, we’ll explore one of the most patient answers to why we haven’t found aliens. From thermodynamic efficiency to cosmic hibernation, from automated watchers keeping vigil to the choice between experiencing now versus waiting for optimal conditions trillions of years ahead, we’ll examine why the rational strategy might be to sleep through our entire era. This changes everything about the Fermi Paradox, the Drake Equation, and what it means to be awake during the universe’s most “expensive” age.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 — Introduction: The Patience of Stars.
4:30 — The Fermi Paradox Once More.
8:20 — Introducing the Aestivation Hypothesis.
New theoretical models have strengthened the case that immense, energy-harvesting structures orbiting their host stars could exist in principle in distant stellar systems. With the right engineering precautions, calculations published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, carried out by Colin McInnes at the University of Glasgow, show that both stellar engines and Dyson bubbles can become gravitationally stable, allowing them to tap into the vast amounts of energy emitted by their host stars.
For decades, astronomers have pondered the possibility of alien civilizations far more technologically advanced than our own. While these studies remain entirely speculative, many have converged on similar ideas for harvesting stellar energy: envisioning vast structures deployed around host stars.
If such structures could exist, they would provide civilizations with vastly more energy than any planet could offer—enough for ventures ranging from the terraforming of new worlds, to interstellar journeys spanning many generations.
A nearby super-Earth may be one of the best chances yet to search for life beyond our solar system. A newly detected super-Earth just 20 light-years away is giving scientists one of the most promising chances yet to search for life beyond our solar system. The discovery of the exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of its star was made possible by advanced spectrographs designed at Penn State and by decades of observations from telescopes around the world.
A possible “super-Earth” located less than 20 light-years from Earth is giving researchers renewed optimism in the search for planets that might host life. The newly identified world, GJ 251 c, earned its “super-Earth” label because current data indicate it is almost four times the mass of Earth and is likely a rocky planet.
“We look for these types of planets because they are our best chance at finding life elsewhere,” said Suvrath Mahadevan, the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Astronomy at Penn State and co-author of a recent paper in The Astronomical Journal. “The exoplanet is in the habitable or the ‘Goldilocks Zone,’ the right distance from its star that liquid water could exist on its surface, if it has the right atmosphere.”
This video explores alien societies capable of expanding across star systems, reshaping reality for efficiency, harvesting cosmic resources at unimaginable scales, or operating with forms of intelligence so detached from human values that our survival would barely register as a variable.
Suscribe @thegreatabyss1
Researched, written, edited, and produced by the @thegreatabyss1 team.
Music produced by @IronCthulhuApocalypse (License Control).
We are truly grateful to have you here with us. Your support means a lot to us and helps us continue creating valuable content. If you enjoy our videos, we would greatly appreciate it if you activate the notification bell, subscribe, like, and share the content. Thank you very much 🙏
Timestamps:
What if I told you that Godzilla, planets, and even the universe itself aren’t anywhere near the biggest beings in fiction?
Across movies, anime, comics, mythology, and cosmic horror, there are aliens so massive that galaxies are decorations, universes are toys, and reality itself exists inside them.
In this video, we rank the 20 BIGGEST ALIENS EVER IN FICTION — strictly by SIZE, not power or popularity.
We start with continent-crushing monsters like Starro…
move through planet-eaters like Unicron and Galactus…
and end with omniversal entities so vast that everything you know exists within them.
From Norse mythology and Lovecraftian horror to Marvel, DC, anime, and sci-fi films, this list escalates FAST — and by the end, scale itself stops making sense.
👉 Which alien blew your mind the most?
Drop a comment, like the video, and subscribe for more insane size breakdowns, cosmic rankings, and fictional mega-structures.
Think bigger.
“A strong magnetic field is very important for life on a planet,” said Dr. Miki Nakajima.
How can magnetic fields help determine the habitability of exoplanets? This is what a recent study published in Nature Astronomy hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Rochester and the University of California, Los Angeles investigated the formation processes that create magnetic fields on Earth and exoplanets slightly larger than Earth called super-Earths. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand planetary formation processes and the planetary conditions to search for life as we know it.
For the study, the researchers used a combination of laboratory experiments and computer models to simulate the formation processes of exoplanets, specifically focusing on the formation of the interior magma ocean responsible for generating the planet’s magnetic field like on Earth. The goal of the study was to estimate the long-term evolution of super-Earths, which are estimated to be between 1–10 Earth masses and 2–3 Earth radii. In the end, the researchers found that super-Earths between 3–6 Earth masses can produce magnetic fields that are stronger than Earths for up to several billion years.
“A strong magnetic field is very important for life on a planet,” said Dr. Miki Nakajima, who is an associate professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester and lead author of the study. “But most of the terrestrial planets in the solar system, such as Venus and Mars, do not have them because their cores don’t have the right physical conditions to generate a magnetic field. However, super-earths can produce dynamos in their core and/or magma, which can increase their planetary habitability.”