Can any astronomical phenomenon block/scramble all radio signals from a planet, without making it completely uninhabitable?

Let's assume that a human colony was established on an exoplanet, dozens of light years from another inhabited planet, with the expectation that no one"”not even the colonists' far-future descendants"”could inform the outside world of their existence in any way, unless they launched a physical object off-planet. In other words, no radio signals, either because they're blocked or because they're jammed by another, more powerful radio source. Is there any pre-existing astronomical phenomenon that could provide this effect?

The first thing that comes to mind is a planet orbiting a pulsar, but the radiation would be too intense for a human colony to survive. (Perhaps if it were tide-locked, and the colony were on the dark side? But that has its own problems"¦)

Alternately, assuming the planet is far outside the edge of currently human-occupied space, could some kind of object, like a black hole, exist between the planet and the rest of civilization, blocking any signals? I'm not sure how plausible any of this is.

In general, it should be possible for humans to live in sealed colony structures on this planet, and to walk on the surface in spacesuits, although the planet doesn't need to be terraformed or have a breathable atmosphere.

posted about 9 years ago

Adam R. Nelson‭

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