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The introduction to the article says: "The observational signatures of such “Dyson spheres” include waste-heat from the absorbing sphere, obscured direct star
by MattPalmer1086 5y ago
The introduction to the article says:
"The observational signatures of such “Dyson spheres” include waste-heat from the absorbing sphere, obscured direct star light (resulting in both an apparently underluminous star and potential temporal variations in brightness) and the effects of feedback on the properties of the star from the surrounding sphere."
So there are ways to distinguish probable Dyson spheres from the majority of these natural infrared sources.
- ncmncm 5y agoThat would depend on somebody, anybody seeing any reason to build so much as one of them. You might imagine a playful civilization building one next-system-over to fool planet-bound hicks who actually still believe they are a good idea. The hicks restructure their whole civilization to be able to mount a trip to visit it, and when they arrive find it is all just a mock-up.
- MattPalmer1086 5y agoSure, there are good and interesting arguments as to whether anyone would bother, but that's orthogonal to whether we can distinguish them from natural sources. EDIT: but I like your idea, sounds like it would be a fun short story!
- colordrops 5y agoDyson, a very smart man, saw a reason to build them. Now there may have been some revelations since his time that have made it obvious that they are not a good idea, but clearly that information has not spread widely. Care to enlighten us?
- ncmncm 5y agoFreeman Dyson gets a free pass. Dyson was writing at a time before people were thinking about controlled fusion as a way to generate power. Furthermore, he projected not building, but growing a biosphere spread out around a star. The notion of constructing a thing to try to gather and convert all of a star's radiation is a radical corruption of his idea. Finally, he posited this development in the near term, while humanity remains far short of any capability that could actually be called advanced, with nothing better to hand than genetic engineering and dumb rockets.