Partial Dyson Sphere?

Explanation: S&F!

If the opening described in the OP was choked down to a small output opening then the entire dyson sphere + enclosed solar system could be moved as the expulsion of the solar wind out of this hole would be enough to propell it wherever we wanted to!

Personal Disclosure: I found the lighthouse idea to be awesome! Its amazing what can be envisaged!

reply to post by Now_Then

If your harnessing this much power and you require a beacon of light surely you could do better than using a boring old star through a slit...

You could beacon at a specific wavelength of light, send complex messages from an array of lasers maybe, heck you could make the star look like a disco ball if your tech is that far advanced.

Indeed you could, sir. For anyone with the technology to build a Dyson sphere, a 2AU-diameter mirror ball would be a bagatelle.

But what they could never do is... make it invisible.

In order to remain functional and habitable, the sphere would have to radiate into space the same amount of energy as its parent star would if unenclosed.

Perhaps some of the more mysterious bodies spotted by our optical and radio telescopes are Dyson spheres surrounding conventional stars, re-radiating at unconventional frequencies.

Think about it. We may have already discovered evidence of many technologically advanced civilizations - we just don't know we have.

Originally posted by Astyanax
In order to remain functional and habitable, the sphere would have to radiate into space the same amount of energy as its parent star would if unenclosed.

I suppose it would unless they had some continuous application for this massive amount of energy, I can't imagine they could ever store 100% of the energy (but then again my imagination is already running at 210% just trying to conceive of a dyson sphere in the first place!).

I am picturing the whole structure as more of a capability to syphon of small amounts of the energy at will, a tiny percentage as and when needed to say recharge a star ship? Or for jump starting some sort of star treckesque warp cores?

But yes it's mind boggling to think that 100% of a stars out put could be used 100% of the time, mostly that energy would likely be vented into space - so no invisible dyson sphere!

But there was one possible application that I remember hearing theorised and that is a super computer, a flipping star sized one!! - Perhaps such a device could have need for the total out put of the star? Seriously though this sort of thinking will hasten my brain swiss cheesing...


BTW kudos on the use of the word 'bagatelle' - that one had to be googled

I doubt that a Dyson's sphere would ever be built, but if it was i highly doubt it would be a complete enclosure of the host star.

I would imagine it would be like a fine mesh or netting that is around the star, this would enable the energy collecting devices to be closer the the star so it does not affect any planetary bodies that orbit it, and it would hardly effect the amount of light and heat that the star is emitting.
I envision it some what like this:



(i apologize for the crappy 3d image, i only spent a minute on it)

Then again, with how were going technologically, why bother trying to harness energy from the sun?
were only about 10-20 years away from viable fusion power, a single power plant of which can provide the planet with an abundance of power.