Dyson Sphere candidate: suggestion for in game content

Calaban

Calaban
KIC 8462852

A real star out there, that the Kepler planet finding telescope noted (and re-verified) was extremely unusual. Theyre not saying Aliens.. but.. aliens.

What makes it odd is that it in unique among all the quarter million or so stars that Kepler has been staring at these lase few years: Its light blockage dips by 20%. So something out there is occluding 20% of that stars' light.

What makes this unusual? well, lets say it was a Jupiter sized planet out there, that would only block 1%. Since Jupiter is 2.5 times the mass of the rest of our own solar system planets combined... that 20% (20x Jupiters) starts to look alarming/exciting.

In addition, the "object" out there is not a symmetrical spherical body (the dip in the light levels during transit shows this). It is in fact an irregular shape blocking out the stars' light.

So; Dyson Sphere (-ish thing). a 20% partial one (maybe the heat buildup precludes a complete sphere enclosure). With the Surface area diameter 20x a Jupiter diameter- yet with no companion star wobble or signal to be found- It hints at the materials to make [It] requiring the materiel from several dozen entire star system, this could plausibly fit the "lore" of a Dyson Sphere concept as well.

Granted, we thought Pulsars back in the day were indisputable alien transmissions.. right up until we figured out what pulsars did. So, this could very well be a natural, if very unusual, thing out there.

But lets talk Elite: Dangerous now.

I think FD should make that star an "artifact" world... of a Dyson sphere. no, not an alien presence if they are not ready for one yet- it could always be a Failed Dyson Sphere- abandoned and in drifting ruins for millions/billions of years. (maybe the engineering was too far beyond even THEM- whoever they were)

The Tanis Shipyard Skybox from the original Homeworld comes to mind- those unimaginably huge segments of curving shell, blocking out half of the night sky- yet broken, crumbled, and abandoned. Even if we could never go to them (maybe the mass and gravity, and arcane power remnants makes approach too hazardous), the ruins on such a titanic scale would send shivers down the spine of any mere human.
 

Osbo89

Osbo89
But wouldn't a ring world be more logical you would not have to worry about heat/radiation build up meteor strikes and material to make it
as in the ring world (by Arthur C Clarke) it also has shadow square's that orbit the sun to give night a day.
Now that would seem easier to make the ring being on edge may not be detectable from hear or our equipment but the shadow square's
may be?

just a thought..
 

Calaban

Calaban
ok, think about it a sec:

"Cluster of comets, with the combined surface area of 20 Jupiters in one place"

and how 1 Jupiter is 2.5 times the mass of the rest of our solar system.. that's... uh.. LOT of comets... uh oh math pain... 2.5 ratio of 100% [dunno] x 20... = more mass than 12-ish [?] star systems worth of comets in one system- so much more than any others?

maybe the math is there- but that seems like a ridiculous amount of extra stuff over there to be able to do that. [with me admittedly unwilling to do mass/volume/occlusion surface area/thickness required calculations... ugh]

but that misses the point of this discussion, this is merely a loosely held notion to enhance the fictional world/galaxy of this game.

We should not forbid such a notion on the grounds that scientists disproved it, if its for this game. If we did that, Maia B wouldn't be a Black Hole, for one.
 
Last edited:

DragoonKnight

DragoonKnight
Do Dyson spheres even exist in Elite lore? That should be the first question answered and it would certainly be awesome if we had a larger variety of astronomical phenomena.
Quasars, Comets that orbit a system, etc. I think if we give FD a chance they will provide a very interesting storyline with Aliens.
 

trollson

trollson
Dyson Spheres et al

Olaf Stapledon first described what we now call the Dyson Sphere in his novel "Star Maker" (1937). Professor Freeman Dyson took the concept and elaborated on it in 1960 (not sure if this is a direct association or coincidence though).

The concept is that as a civilisation evolves, it will need to consume more and more of the energy produced by its star - and will therefore have to capture that energy somehow.

The initial stages would consist of gigantic plates orbiting face-on to the start like giant solar panels. As their numbers increase, they are set to orbit in "chains" (not implying that they are physically connected). Multiple chains are set to orbit at different distances and angles from the star (so they don't collide).

All these "chains" are still stable (ish) orbits. The problem with building a shell is that only its "equator" may be in a stable orbit around the star. You have to support the rest of the sphere out to the poles against it falling in to the star - effectively you are building a pair of domes. On the inside of such a sphere there is only "gravity" from the rotation - and this decreases as you move away from the equator, eventually balanced by the pull of the star, and then, if you go further north or south, you'd drift off the inside and fall inwards.

But Dyson's premise seems to assume that the civilisation is confined to its original star system. If you have FTL travel (as in the Elite universe) why bother with this form of mega engineering when you can pop to the next system for more resources? Especially when you include fuel scooping in the equation.

Dyson spheres do not make good habitates - too expensive and vunerable.


Ring worlds are also rather expensive and unstable - Larry Niven (Larry Niven!) had to introduce adjuster jets in the later novels after feedback to "Ringworld".


Personally, for the mass-habitat megastructure I prefer Orbitals as in Iain Bank's Culture novels (read them! read them now!). These are much more sensible.

Imagine a cyclinder, rotating once a day, and scaled so that its rotation produces Earth normal gravity on the inside. Put this in orbit around a star, oriented such that approximately half the interior is in daylight at a time. Now put an atmosphere inside - keep it in with curtain walls and force fields (as appropriate to your technology) and set up home.


Other megastructures may include a rosetta of habitable planets - six Earth-like (or Zog-like) worlds placed at 60-degree intervals around an orbit in the Goldilocks (or Zogella) zone of a star. Quite stable.
 

Osbo89

Osbo89
trollson said:
Dyson Spheres et al

Olaf Stapledon first described what we now call the Dyson Sphere in his novel "Star Maker" (1937). Professor Freeman Dyson took the concept and elaborated on it in 1960 (not sure if this is a direct association or coincidence though).

The concept is that as a civilisation evolves, it will need to consume more and more of the energy produced by its star - and will therefore have to capture that energy somehow.

The initial stages would consist of gigantic plates orbiting face-on to the start like giant solar panels. As their numbers increase, they are set to orbit in "chains" (not implying that they are physically connected). Multiple chains are set to orbit at different distances and angles from the star (so they don't collide).

All these "chains" are still stable (ish) orbits. The problem with building a shell is that only its "equator" may be in a stable orbit around the star. You have to support the rest of the sphere out to the poles against it falling in to the star - effectively you are building a pair of domes. On the inside of such a sphere there is only "gravity" from the rotation - and this decreases as you move away from the equator, eventually balanced by the pull of the star, and then, if you go further north or south, you'd drift off the inside and fall inwards.

But Dyson's premise seems to assume that the civilisation is confined to its original star system. If you have FTL travel (as in the Elite universe) why bother with this form of mega engineering when you can pop to the next system for more resources? Especially when you include fuel scooping in the equation.

Dyson spheres do not make good habitates - too expensive and vunerable.


Ring worlds are also rather expensive and unstable - Larry Niven (Larry Niven!) had to introduce adjuster jets in the later novels after feedback to "Ringworld".


Personally, for the mass-habitat megastructure I prefer Orbitals as in Iain Bank's Culture novels (read them! read them now!). These are much more sensible.

Imagine a cyclinder, rotating once a day, and scaled so that its rotation produces Earth normal gravity on the inside. Put this in orbit around a star, oriented such that approximately half the interior is in daylight at a time. Now put an atmosphere inside - keep it in with curtain walls and force fields (as appropriate to your technology) and set up home.


Other megastructures may include a rosetta of habitable planets - six Earth-like (or Zog-like) worlds placed at 60-degree intervals around an orbit in the Goldilocks (or Zogella) zone of a star. Quite stable.
Click to expand...


Did'nt Gerard K. O'Neill suggest these back in the eighties (I think) having two cylinder's rotating (one clock wise the other counter clock wise) with small dish like units strung around the outer area of the two cylinder's. Cylinder_Exterior_AC75-1085_900.jpg
 

Apotheos

Apotheos
CMDR Dumbfries said:
I thought this was cleared up already. Didn't the astronomers take a closer look and determine it was multiple objects or comets orbiting the star?

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4777
Click to expand...

Well according to this recent article, comets may not be a valid explanation after all - so Dyson Sphere and other hypotheses are still on the table

From the article: "Within the context of the comet-family idea, the century-long dimmingtrend requires an estimated 648,000 giant comets (each with 200 km diameter)
all orchestrated to pass in front of the star within the last century."

This is very implausible scenario


http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03256
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom