Unless a way could be found to ignite Jupiter, then you'd have a mini sun and bundles of light energy
Alien Structure or just rocks? I'm thinking rocks..
- Thread starter Gingerbread Demon
- Start date
For how long? Jupiter is only 0.09% of the mass of the Sun. Why not just use the Sun?
Do you really even need a lot of surface area to get power form the sun--what about coils in orbit spinning against the rotation of the Sun?
You can use rather thin wire to store a lot of energy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage
Size - To achieve commercially useful levels of storage, around 1 GW·h (3.6 TJ), a SMES installation would need a loop of around 100 miles (160 km). This is traditionally pictured as a circle, though in practice it could be more like a rounded rectangle. In either case it would require access to a significant amount of land to house the installation.
Superconductors seem to be progressing: http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/11/superconducting-at-70-degrees-celsius.html
Ideally, you'd want coils around a magnetar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar#Magnetic_field
A magnetar's 10 to the 10th power tesla field, by contrast, has an energy density of 4.0×1025 J/m3, with an E/c2 mass density >104 times that of lead.
It may be that you cannot even see ET's power supply--whip thin?
You can use rather thin wire to store a lot of energy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_magnetic_energy_storage
Size - To achieve commercially useful levels of storage, around 1 GW·h (3.6 TJ), a SMES installation would need a loop of around 100 miles (160 km). This is traditionally pictured as a circle, though in practice it could be more like a rounded rectangle. In either case it would require access to a significant amount of land to house the installation.
Superconductors seem to be progressing: http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/11/superconducting-at-70-degrees-celsius.html
Ideally, you'd want coils around a magnetar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar#Magnetic_field
A magnetar's 10 to the 10th power tesla field, by contrast, has an energy density of 4.0×1025 J/m3, with an E/c2 mass density >104 times that of lead.
It may be that you cannot even see ET's power supply--whip thin?
It's much easier to use solar panels to harvest energy for a low-end Kardashev type II civilization, which I guess might also choose to develop fusion energy for deep-space utilization. I suppose you could also extract energy from a star's rotating magnetic field. You might also be able to store magnetic energy in the star by passing current through the coils. Subtle control of such coils might also allow you to dampen or otherwise manage a star's sunspot cycle or perhaps even to move the star. That seems like something a mid to high-end Kardashev type II civ might attempt. Extracting energy from magnetars, pulsars, black holes, etc would seem like activities for a high-end Kardashev type II or low-end type III civ.
There's loads written about this sort of stuff. I'd suggest reading the Wikipedia article as a starter.
There's loads written about this sort of stuff. I'd suggest reading the Wikipedia article as a starter.
Yes but why do that when you can have 2?
I'm just wondering how long Jupiter would burn for
The Jovians are not going to be very jovial when you try to set fire to them.
They're just on Europan vacation.
Maybe that's what KIC 8462852 is: The floating debris of a defunct Ringworld.
There are reasonable scenarios that allow civilizations around an F-Star, but as you get deeper into the galactic core it will eventually be impossible to have a stable planetary system. The galaxy has a habitable zone and the bulk of stars is not in it. Also, a Dyson Whatever doesn't just need to be physically and technologically possible, but culturally desirable. Which means that what we're looking at is almost certainly not a Dyson Whatever.
I've long thought that a very likely solution to the Fermi Paradox is that they are all at home on Facebook. They're probably just like us: Most of them couldn't care less, and the ones that do have trouble getting funding.
Tell Larry Niven that the Ringworld is STILL unstable.Just finished a Com-Link with Larry Niven.
He said, "Tell those guys in the Alien Structures Thread of BBS that they just crack me up!"
Maybe that's what KIC 8462852 is: The floating debris of a defunct Ringworld.
Yeah, the stars in the central bulge are packed a lot closer and are more likely to be sterilised by a supernova. According to https://arxiv.org/abs/1107.1286, the proportion of stars in the Galaxy that can support multicellular life is estimated to be between 0.3% and 1.2%, depending on assumptions. That would increase my estimate for the distance to the nearest megastructure to between 440 and 690 ly and decrease the number of such structures to between 7,500 and 30,000.
ETA: Of course, the number could be higher if civs colonise other star systems over time.
Based on a sample of one that might turn out to be a new type of variable star or a dodgy CCD element...
ETA: Of course, the number could be higher if civs colonise other star systems over time.
Based on a sample of one that might turn out to be a new type of variable star or a dodgy CCD element...
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That's the problem. Small or non-existent sample sizes.
It's frustrating to have to wait but it might take several years of further observation to nail down exactly what is causing the variability. That probably doesn't sit well with an increasingly almost ADHD-afflicted society and news media.
https://www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-532
https://www.aavso.org/aavso-alert-notice-532
I get a little impatient with stuff like this myself. But chances are this will turn out to be like the Wow! Signal and the ambiguous Viking lander tests-- the subject of unresolved discussion for decades.
But chances are this will turn out to be like the Wow! Signal and the ambiguous Viking lander tests-- the subject of unresolved discussion for decades.
I always believed that the WOW signal was an actual signal that got cut off from the other end. I really do believe this.
We'll never know for sure though, and it will remain a mystery.
We'll never know for sure though, and it will remain a mystery.
Cut off? By lack of funding or peasants with pitchforks?
I figured if it was a signal we were just unlucky enough to catch the tail end.
I figured if it was a signal we were just unlucky enough to catch the tail end.
Oh, those wacky aliens, how they like to twist our melons. See the monkeys dance, daddy...
The message was, "Is your refrigerator running?"
It may have been just be a last notice of demolition from the Galactic Hyperspace Planning Council.
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