#megastructure
3 posts
Could We Move a Planet, or Even the Whole Solar System?
The Sun is drifting through the Milky Way on a path that will eventually bring us closer to the galactic center, near energetic regions and stellar nurseries. A sufficiently advanced civilization might want to steer its star, or even move its planets to a new orbit. The physics of stellar and planetary engineering is real — and stranger than fiction.
What a Type II Civilization's Megastructures Would Look Like to Our Telescopes
A civilization capable of harnessing the full output of its star would leave signatures visible across light-years: dimming patterns, heat signatures, unusual spectral features. The science of megastructure detection is a real field of astronomy, and a handful of star systems have already attracted attention.
Dyson Spheres and Swarms: Harvesting the Full Energy of a Star
Freeman Dyson's 1960 thought experiment about surrounding a star with a shell of energy collectors has become one of the defining ideas of advanced-civilization astronomy. Here is why it matters.