Penn State astronomer Jason Wright discusses Dyson sphere detection, why building one in 50 years is physically impossible, and the search for alien technosignatures across 100,000 galaxies.

Jason T. Wright is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University and director of the Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence (PSETI) Center . His research focuses on the search for alien technosignatures – especially the telltale waste heat from hypothetical Dyson spheres (megastructures built around stars to capture their energy). Wright led pioneering surveys using NASA’s WISE space telescope to hunt for mid-infrared excess emission from Dyson sphere-like structures . He is also known for his work on peculiar astronomical objects such as “Tabby’s Star,” helping show its strange dimming was due to dust rather than an “alien megastructure” . In addition to SETI, Wright studies exoplanets and stellar astrophysics, and he has been a vocal advocate for integrating technosignature searches into mainstream astronomy .