Is a Dyson sphere physically possible?
Is a Dyson sphere physically possible?
Maddox points out that a Dyson sphere is physically impossible. To keep this shell in orbit around the Sun at any distance in the Habitable Zone would require some force counteracting gravity and pushing outwards on the sphere.
What would a Dyson sphere be made of?
The website SentientDevelopments describes the Dyson sphere this way: It would consist of a shell of solar collectors (or habitats) around the star. With this model, all (or at least a significant amount) of the energy would hit a receiving surface where it can be used.
How thick would a Dyson sphere need to be?
6 to 10 feet
By building structures at twice the Earth-sun distance, the material would be sufficient to construct a huge number of orbiting platforms 6 to 10 feet (2 to 3 meters) thick, allowing the aliens to live on their star-facing surface.
Why a Dyson sphere is impossible?
Originally people conceived of a Dyson Sphere as an actual sphere with a thickness of a few meters that would completely encompass the star. But, as shown by my former physics student Brooks Harrop, that design is not practical, as it would require too much matter to build and too much energy to stabilize.
Would a Dyson sphere affect gravity?
Your inhabitants would experience no gravity due to the sphere itself (while inside it, that is) no matter how massive the sphere’s radius, thick the outer wall, or dense the unobtainium it is built out of.
How many years would it take to build a Dyson sphere?
about 120 trillion years
That’s about 120 trillion years. Of course, that’s only the first stage. Going simply by the numbers that Dvorsky provides, without critique or comment, the Dyson sphere would eventually encompass 6.9 x 10^13 square kilometers.
What if we build a Dyson sphere around the sun?
Theoretically, if we built a Dyson sphere, we’d have access to a colossal 400 septillion watts of solar energy. That’s a trillion times more power than our entire civilization consumes today. The problem is, no known material is strong enough to handle all the space radiation.
How much matter does a Dyson sphere need?
Anders Sandberg estimates that there is 1.82×1026 kg of easily usable building material in the Solar System, enough for a 1 AU shell with a mass of 600 kg/m2—about 8–20 cm thick on average, depending on the density of the material.
How much material would a Dyson sphere need?
My other answer about Dyson Spheres indicates that spheres with a 10 M shell thickness around white dwarf stars only require materials massing about 1 Earth sized planet’s mass. Such Dyson Spheres have the added benefit of putting the materials under much lower stresses.
How does gravity work on a sphere?
As gravity pulls matter towards other matter, a sphere forms. Why? Only a sphere allows every point on its surface to have the same distance from the centre, so that no part of the object can further ‘fall’ toward its centre. Gravity just keeps on pulling.