Dyson Sphere
A Dyson Sphere is a megastructure that surrounds a star to capture most or all of its power output.
- Context:
- It can (typically) encompass a star and capture a large percentage of its solar power output.
- It can (typically) be a Thought Experiment.
- It can aim to meet the energy requirements of a spacefaring civilization.
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- Example(s):
- a Dyson Swarm, which consists of a collection of independent structures around a star to capture its energy.
- the one proposed in (Dyson, 1960).
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- Counter-Example(s):
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- See: Science Fiction, Megastructure, Star, Solar Power, Science Fact And Science Fiction: An Encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Thought Experiment, Spacefaring, Planet, Civilization, Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker.
References
2023
- (Wikipedia, 2023) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere Retrieved:2023-11-1.
- A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone. Because only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy.
The first modern imagining of such a structure was by Olaf Stapledon in his science fiction novel Star Maker (1937). The concept was later explored by the physicist Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation". Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the escalating energy needs of a technological civilization and would be a necessity for its long-term survival. A signature of such spheres detected in astronomical searches could be an indicator of extraterrestrial life.
Since Dyson's paper, many variant designs involving an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction, often under the name "Dyson sphere". Fictional depictions often describe a solid shell of matter enclosing a star – an arrangement considered by Dyson himself to be impossible.
- A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone. Because only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy.
1960
- (Dyson, 1960) ⇒ Freeman J. Dyson. (1960). “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation.” Science 131, no . 3414