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There was a movie where Moon was a hi-tech 'megastructure' with a white dwarf inside. I wonder if it would be theoretically possible to set up such a mini-dyson

by akomtu 1y ago

There was a movie where Moon was a hi-tech 'megastructure' with a white dwarf inside. I wonder if it would be theoretically possible to set up such a mini-dyson sphere around a mini-blackhole.

api 1y ago
If you set it up at the right radius it would have 1g gravity at the surface, like a little mini-world. It wouldn't be able to hold an atmosphere though, so it would have to have pressurized buildings on it.
- throwaway290 1y ago
  Somebody write a sci fi with this please, just make sure to describe how trash disposal works
  - antonvs 1y ago
    If you're interested in black holes and trash disposal, check out the 1978 short story, "The Nothing Spot": https://vintage.failed-dam.org/nothing.htm https://vintage.failed-dam.org/nothing.htm
antonvs 1y ago
A black hole, or neutron star, would make much more sense in that scenario than a white dwarf. A white dwarf smaller than the moon seems unlikely, if not impossible. If it were that small, unless it was in the (fast) process of collapsing to a neutron star, it wouldn't have enough mass to remain that compact. A neutron star or black hole would work fine, because both can easily have radii much smaller than the Moon's. Here's an article about that - https://www.fandom.com/articles/moonfall-real-life-astrophysicist https://www.fandom.com/articles/moonfall-real-life-astrophys... : > “There are just so many things wrong with [the idea of a white dwarf inside the moon],” says Romer. “Now, a white dwarf is a very compact object. But, you know — people have heard of neutron stars — neutron stars are ultra-compact objects, they’re a few tens of kilometres across. White dwarfs are actually about the size of a normal star.” You can come up with scenarios where white dwarfs are much smaller than a star, but smaller than the Moon is iffy at best. As for the Dyson sphere idea, the biggest problem with it in this scaled-down scenario is stability. You can't exactly support it with struts, or something. On that subject, I highly recommend the video "dyson spheres are a joke": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLzEX1TPBFM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLzEX1TPBFM , by astrophysicist Angela Collier. But you need to either watch all 53 minutes, or skip to near the end, to find out just how literal the title is.

by akomtu 1y ago

There was a movie where Moon was a hi-tech 'megastructure' with a white dwarf inside. I wonder if it would be theoretically possible to set up such a mini-dyson sphere around a mini-blackhole.

api 1y ago

If you set it up at the right radius it would have 1g gravity at the surface, like a little mini-world. It wouldn't be able to hold an atmosphere though, so it would have to have pressurized buildings on it.

throwaway290 1y ago
Somebody write a sci fi with this please, just make sure to describe how trash disposal works
- antonvs 1y ago
  If you're interested in black holes and trash disposal, check out the 1978 short story, "The Nothing Spot": https://vintage.failed-dam.org/nothing.htm https://vintage.failed-dam.org/nothing.htm

antonvs 1y ago

A black hole, or neutron star, would make much more sense in that scenario than a white dwarf. A white dwarf smaller than the moon seems unlikely, if not impossible. If it were that small, unless it was in the (fast) process of collapsing to a neutron star, it wouldn't have enough mass to remain that compact. A neutron star or black hole would work fine, because both can easily have radii much smaller than the Moon's. Here's an article about that - https://www.fandom.com/articles/moonfall-real-life-astrophysicist https://www.fandom.com/articles/moonfall-real-life-astrophys... : > “There are just so many things wrong with [the idea of a white dwarf inside the moon],” says Romer. “Now, a white dwarf is a very compact object. But, you know — people have heard of neutron stars — neutron stars are ultra-compact objects, they’re a few tens of kilometres across. White dwarfs are actually about the size of a normal star.” You can come up with scenarios where white dwarfs are much smaller than a star, but smaller than the Moon is iffy at best. As for the Dyson sphere idea, the biggest problem with it in this scaled-down scenario is stability. You can't exactly support it with struts, or something. On that subject, I highly recommend the video "dyson spheres are a joke": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLzEX1TPBFM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLzEX1TPBFM , by astrophysicist Angela Collier. But you need to either watch all 53 minutes, or skip to near the end, to find out just how literal the title is.