Astronomy / Space Astrophysicist Describes A Stellar Engine That Can Move The Solar System

[Manticore]

A video by the YouTube channel ‘Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell’ explored the concept of stellar engines' theoretical thrusters with the ability to propel the Sun and with it the entire solar system. The video explained the working of this cosmic megastructure with the help of The Shadakov Thruster, presented by physicist Leonid Shkadov. The concept is similar to the LightSail spacecraft, but in this case, it would mean using the Sun’s energy to move the Sun.

Astrophysicist Describes A Stellar Engine That Can Move The Solar System

A stellar engine can move the entire solar system through the Milky Way galaxy and even visit neighbouring galaxies, to escape supernovas or inhabit distant exoplanets.

in.mashable.com

 

[metatheurgist]

I'm already weaponizing this....

 

[Robin of Spiritwood]

Kurzgesagt has the most vibrantly coloured animations.

 

[Jezzah]

It's a great channel. Watch a lot of their stuff

 

[Patrick_68000]

Move the Solar System ?

It is necessary to lock up these men, for safety.

 

[Morbad]

Move the Solar System ?

It is necessary to lock up these men, for safety.

As the video points out there are plenty of cosmic phenomena that could mandate moving the solar system to ensure the survival of Earth.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

As the video points out there are plenty of cosmic phenomena that could mandate moving the solar system to ensure the survival of Earth.

Isn't it more practical to merely migrate?

 

[Morbad]

Isn't it more practical to merely migrate?

Only if you have somewhere else to go.

We may well have the ability to slowly divert our solar system before we find an extra solar planet we are sure we could inhabit, or the means to move humanity there.

 

[Patrick_68000]

As the video points out there are plenty of cosmic phenomena that could mandate moving the solar system to ensure the survival of Earth.

Before we want to move the solar system, perhaps we can ensure the survival of the earth by rethinking how we pollute and produce and consume ?

 

[Morbad]

Before we want to move the solar system, perhaps we can ensure the survival of the earth by rethinking how we pollute and produce and consume ?

That would be a prerequisite; moving the solar system would only be practical for certain threats (a gamma-ray burst, for example) that we could forecast hundreds of thousands or millions of years ahead of time.

 

[Patrick_68000]

That would be a prerequisite; moving the solar system would only be practical for certain threats (a gamma-ray burst, for example) that we could forecast hundreds of thousands or millions of years ahead of time.

We have plenty of time to deal with other more urgent matters.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Isn't it more practical to merely migrate?

Not really. Unless we discover some rather... novel... physics, the infrastructure necessary to move a move a huge population to another star in any kind of relevant time frame is pretty much the same as the infrastructure necessary to move an entire solar system in the first place. Either way, we're talking K2 levels of energy here.

The nice thing about moving a system using a Shakadov thruster is that you don't need to dedicate extra energy into moving the system. You just need to ensure that the Dyson Swarm you've hopefully already built is asymmetrical.

 

[Noobilite]

Only if you have somewhere else to go.

We may well have the ability to slowly divert our solar system before we find an extra solar planet we are sure we could inhabit, or the means to move humanity there.

Unless something involving the solar systems movement has a chain effect that causes the problem to follow us in an ironic twist of fate.

If you have a full dyson sphere around a sun(assuming that is waht is meant) can't you potentially use it as armor?

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Only if you have somewhere else to go.

We may well have the ability to slowly divert our solar system before we find an extra solar planet we are sure we could inhabit, or the means to move humanity there.

If we already have the ability to move the Solar System and can manage the power of a star we can most certainly terraform a planet/moon for our own inhabitation, our own solar system will only be life suitable for a dozen billion years or so before the Sun's lifespan has passed.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Not really. Unless we discover some rather... novel... physics, the infrastructure necessary to move a move a huge population to another star in any kind of relevant time frame is pretty much the same as the infrastructure necessary to move an entire solar system in the first place. Either way, we're talking K2 levels of energy here.

Did you come up with that out of thin air?

The nice thing about moving a system using a Shakadov thruster is that you don't need to dedicate extra energy into moving the system. You just need to ensure that the Dyson Swarm you've hopefully already built is asymmetrical.

A Dyson Swarm? You certainly do not need such thing to either migrate or terraform a viable planet, for reference sake, a Dyson Swarm has been estimated to need all of Mercury's resources to be built.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Did you come up with that out of thin air?

Nope. We don't live in a sci-fi universe with easy interstellar travel. Space is big. Really big. That means that if we want to travel between the stars at a reasonable rate (say 10% the speed of light), we'll need to use a lot of energy. And by a lot, I mean a percentage of a star's output... assuming you want to move ten thousand people, the stuff necessary to keep them alive for several centuries (since we're talking about getting out of the range of a supernova or gamma ray burst), the supplies to build colonies when the arrive at their destination, and most important of all: something to slow them down at their destination.

A Dyson Swarm? You certainly do not need such thing to either migrate or terraform a viable planet, for reference sake, a Dyson Swarm has been estimated to need all of Mercury's resources to be built.

Terraform a planet in our own solar system? No. Moving the entire population out of the solar system? YES... unless you're willing to take 50,000 years to travel a handful of light years, which kind of defeats the purpose of evacuating the solar system in the first place.

The bottom line is, interstellar colonization isn't something a civilization does unless they're already well on their way to becoming a K2 civilization, with enough free power available to launch colony ships at distant stars. Chemical rockets aren't sufficient to do it. Fusion rockets might be sufficient to help stop you at your destination, but you face the old "the fuel needed to launch the fuel needed to launch the fuel" problem if you want to use them to launch ships into space. Anti-matter would be sufficient... but to manufacture the quantities necessary to launch ships between the stars, you'll need a Dyson Swarm. What you really need is a lot of huge lasers powered by huge solar panels around your star.

Which is why futurists, when discussing how to escape destruction by a supernova or gamma-ray burst, say that the easiest way to do so is move the entire solar system rather than the people living in it. A civilization with enough power to evacuate an entire solar system already has the infrastructure to move the star in the first place. If a civilization doesn't have that infrastructure, then the best they can hope for is that a handful of colonists will escape the destruction.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Fortunately, or unfortunately before something like this could become even remotely realistic we will all be long gone

 

[[PS4] Filthymick420]

I feel like this is how most super villains start off

 

[Patrick_68000]

Fortunately, or unfortunately before something like this could become even remotely realistic we will all be long gone

And displacement of the solar system or not, at the end of its life it will swallow all our planets.

 

[Noobilite]

I wonder how moving a sun disrupts it's functioning.