Dan Hooper, a scientist at the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, suggested extraterrestrials could store and collect stars through technology knows as Dyson Spheres.
Dyson spheres are theoretical structures capable of confining a star to syphon its vast stores of energy.
In a pre-publication research paper, Dr Hooper theorised alien species use Dyson spheres to stay ahead of expanding space.
Dr Hooper wrote: “The presence of dark energy in our universe is causing space to expand at an accelerating rate.
“As a result, over the next approximately 100 billion years, all stars residing beyond the Local Group will fall beyond the cosmic horizon and become not only unobservable, but entirely inaccessible, thus limiting how much energy could one day be extracted from them.
“Here, we consider the likely response of a highly advanced civilisation to this situation.
“In particular, we argue that in order to maximise its access to useable energy, a sufficiently advanced civilisation would chose to expand rapidly outward, build Dyson Spheres or similar structures around encountered stars, and use the energy that is harnessed to accelerate those stars away from the approaching horizon and toward the centre of the civilisation.”
According to the hypothetical scenario, technologically advanced alien species could target stars smaller than that in our solar system to utilise their incredible power.