JWST/MIRI data attribute the mid-IR excess of Hephaistos candidates D and E to background galaxies at z≈0.9 (Hot-DOG-like) and z≈0.4 (dusty starburst), not to Dyson spheres or debris disks.
Background Contamination of the Project Hephaistos Dyson Spheres Candidates
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abstract
Project Hephaistos recently identified seven M-dwarfs as possible Dyson Spheres (DS) candidates. We have cross-matched three of these candidates (A, B \& G) with radio sources detected in various all-sky surveys. The radio sources are offset from the Gaia stellar positions by $\sim 4.9$, $\sim 0.4$ and $\sim 5.0$ arcseconds for candidates A, B, and G respectively. We propose that DOGs (Dust obscured galaxies) lying close to the line-of-sight of these M-dwarf stars significantly contribute to the measured WISE mid-IR flux densities in the WISE W3 and W4 wavebands. These three stars have therefore been misidentified as DS candidates. We also note that with an areal sky density of $9 \times 10^{-6}$ per square arcsecond, Hot DOGs can probably account for the contamination of all 7 DS candidates drawn from an original sample of 5 million stars.
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Project Hephaistos -- IV. James Webb Space Telescope Observations of Two Dyson Sphere Candidates
JWST/MIRI data attribute the mid-IR excess of Hephaistos candidates D and E to background galaxies at z≈0.9 (Hot-DOG-like) and z≈0.4 (dusty starburst), not to Dyson spheres or debris disks.