DYSON SPHERES, THE FUTURE OF ENERGY HARVESTATION?

From the very beginning, mankind is dependent on the use of energy for its survival. We started by using heat energy from fire to cook our food and stay warm.We made machines that worked on electrical energy. When we further evolved, age of industrialization came and learned to use coal and other fossil fuels for our energy consumption. Then we entered the atomic age, where the concepts of nuclear fission and fusion helped us gain some control over nuclear energy.

As the population is increasing, the scale of energy harvestation is also increasing like never before. As we are looking for the renewable sources of energy, it is also possible that we will end up using all the sources of energy on our planet. In that case, humanity will start to look into space for the survival. For starters, let's suppose we have to terraform a planet in our solar system like Mars, which will require a lot of energy, maybe more than what we have right now. In that case, we can consider using our ultimate source of energy, our sun. 

            

Sun

Our Sun is 100 quintillion times more powerful then the most efficient nuclear power reactor we have on earth which radiates energy  a trillion nuclear bombs per second. So how can we harvest if not all but most of this energy? This is where Dyson Spheres come in.

WHAT IS A DYSON SPHERE?

In order to harness that much energy from our star, we need to make a mega-structure biggers than anything else made till date i.e., a Dyson Sphere.

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical mega-structure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to explain how a space-faring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone. Only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reach the surface of any orbiting planet. Building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy

      Representation of a Dyson Sphere

Image Source - Google | Image By - u/tod22

ORIGIN

The concept of the Dyson sphere was the result of a thought experiment by physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, when he theorized that all technological civilizations constantly increased their demand for energy. He reasoned that if human civilization expanded energy demands long enough, there would come a time when it demanded the total energy output of the sun.

     

 FREEMAN DYSON

PROOF OF AN ACTUAL DYSON SPHERE?

Recently, The Kepler Space Telescope discovered a star, named tabby's star, nearly 1500 light-years away from earth. Scientists say that some strange structure is revolving around this star which is most definitely not natural.

The star is officially called KIC-8462852.

Normally, when a planet eclipses it's mother star, or goes in front of it's mother star, The star's light rate gets dropped by 1% at maximum. But when this unknown structure eclipses the star, it causes a massive 22% decrease in the starlight, which is never seen before in any star system.

          

                   Tabby's Star (RED)

Image Source - Google | Image By -  Deborah Byrd

Scientists are speculating that this is actually an artificial mega-structure Dyson Sphere or Dyson Swarm, which is made by a type 2 alien civilization. Yes, an alien civilization made it. This can possibly be the greatest news in the mankind. However it is not confirmed if the speculations are correct are not but it is possible that we will very soon find out.

Building a Dyson Sphere will be a technological leap for our civilization. It can be the transition from a planetary civilization to an interstellar civilization.

This will help our civilization to expand in the vast space on a scale we can barely imagine. Although today it's just a hypothetical mega-structure, one day, it will be true.

 

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