• Question: What is a Dyson sphere? Is it achievable for us?

    Asked by ZombieBomb to Connor, Jillian, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 17 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Steven Thomson

      Steven Thomson answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      A Dyson sphere is an idea to completely enclose the Sun and part of the Solar System inside a massive sphere. We’d cut off the rest of the universe and just live inside the sphere. We could line the inner surface of the sphere with solar panels, gathering up all of the Sun’s energy and not allowing any of it to go to waste.

      Sometimes, rather than a solid shell, people use ‘Dyson sphere’ to mean a network of orbiting solar-powered satellites or small space stations, but the concept is the same.

      It’s theoretically achievable, but we don’t have the technology to do it now, and I’m not sure there’s even enough metal and other materials on Earth to build enough satellites to construct an object as huge as a Dyson sphere.

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 17 Jun 2015:

      A Dyson sphere, as Steven says, is the idea to surround the sun with solar panels, so that we can more efficiently harvest the solar energy. We don’t have the means (or the political focus) to pull this off right now, but perhaps in the future if we get serious about efficient solar panels it might be something to look into!

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