Mega space structures human/alien

[Moontanman]

I had a thought... in the attempt at SETI have the idea of mega structures been discussed anyplace? I know i haven't read much about it if anything.

 

There are some possible mega structures that could be seen across interstellar distances.

 

There is an orbit called a rosette where 5 masses can orbit around a large one if they are all the same distance from each other. last about 5 seconds with out some energy input intelligently directed at keeping them that way, or the idea of a sphere surrounding a star to collect all of it's energy.

 

I have seen some images of proposed space structures humans could make, the recent asteroid that was found to have a ring made me think of a ring structure orbiting a small asteroid, this could have some advantages over just a torus free floating in space. The asteroid could be source of materials to build the ring and keep it supplied with various materials like volatile's.

 

I guess what I am asking is has such a search for mega structures been undertaken? The sphere around a star would emit IR and could be seen by an IR telescope.

 

I am torn between thinking that such mega structures should be common if sentience is common in the universe or maybe we wouldn't recognize what mega structures aliens might make...

[Janus]

I had a thought... in the attempt at SETI have the idea of mega structures been discussed anyplace? I know i haven't read much about it if anything.

 

There are some possible mega structures that could be seen across interstellar distances.

 

There is an orbit called a rosette where 5 masses can orbit around a large one if they are all the same distance from each other. last about 5 seconds with out some energy input intelligently directed at keeping them that way, or the idea of a sphere surrounding a star to collect all of it's energy.

I assume that you are thinking along the lines of a a Kempler Rosette, Though they usually involve alternating large and small bodies, and you don't need a central body. The most stable of these are Hexagonal.

I have seen some images of proposed space structures humans could make, the recent asteroid that was found to have a ring made me think of a ring structure orbiting a small asteroid, this could have some advantages over just a torus free floating in space. The asteroid could be source of materials to build the ring and keep it supplied with various materials like volatile's.

So, we're talking about a smaller version of Niven's "Ringworld". Unfortunately, A solid ring in orbiting another body is not stable. You would have to keep nudging it to keep the ring from brushing against the central body. (James Maxwell was the first to demonstrate this fact, which he used to prove that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

[Schneibster]

Dyson has recommended looking for large, very low-mass, infrared-bright spherical objects. They are likely eponymous dyson spheres constructed by alien civilizations to take full advantage of the total output of a star.

[Moontanman]

I assume that you are thinking along the lines of a a Kempler Rosette, Though they usually involve alternating large and small bodies, and you don't need a central body. The most stable of these are Hexagonal.So, we're talking about a smaller version of Niven's "Ringworld". Unfortunately, A solid ring in orbiting another body is not stable. You would have to keep nudging it to keep the ring from brushing against the central body. (James Maxwell was the first to demonstrate this fact, which he used to prove that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

 

 

I understand you would have to nudge it, Larry Nivin's ringworld had to be nudged as well. How difficult would it be for a ring around an asteroid or comet type body maybe 10 miles in diameter?

[CaptainPanic]

I guess what I am asking is has such a search for mega structures been undertaken? The sphere around a star would emit IR and could be seen by an IR telescope.

 

Would that search be any different than the other searches for objects in space? If SETI pick this up, wouldn't they be doing exactly the same as other astronomers, thereby doing double work?

 

As far as I know, SETI search for intelligence by searching for pattern in particular signals. They're searching for broadcasts, basically.

 

I'm sure that if astronomers discover a glowing ring around an object, or otherwise discover a weird object, they will publish this, and the media will pick it up and we'll read about it soon enough.

 

Unfortunately, A solid ring in orbiting another body is not stable. You would have to keep nudging it to keep the ring from brushing against the central body. (James Maxwell was the first to demonstrate this fact, which he used to prove that Saturn's rings could not be solid.

 

What if your weight distribution on the ring is very assymetric? That would start to resemble a single object in orbit.

Can you explain what causes the instability?

[Danijel Gorupec]

I had a thought...

 

Nice one... It just occurred to me that we do not see any "show off" from them. We people enjoy erecting large structures just to show how great our nations are.... Compared to us, these advanced civilizations must be very non-existent or very humble.

 

They are not even showing some star-size art. Must be they also have small budgets for culture.

 

....

 

Btw, I am just thinking about Dyson spheres... I am imagining a whaling ship captain in 1650 who is dreaming about a sailboat capable of transporting 100000 tons of whale oil. He concludes that one day people will have the technology to make such large sailboats. But today we do not use sailboats to transport oil, instead we are using diesel-powered boats. Building such a large oil-carrier sailboat would look a bit silly... That is why I don't expect much Dyson spheres around. It might look like a good and advanced idea to us now, but once when we will have the technology to actually build one... well, it will look just too cumbersome and silly. Our neighbors might ridicule us.

[michel123456]

One should realize that our technology goes faster into the minuscule than into the enormous.

Gigantism is part of human ambition from ancient times till today. It is not necessarily the way to into go to the future.

Edited April 12, 2014 by michel123456

[Danijel Gorupec]

One should realize that our technology goes faster into the minuscule than into the enormous.

Beautiful observation... until now I was not aware of that.... He he...now I am actually speculating that maybe all advanced civilization guys are actually very small - having their bodies engineered into a submillimeter range.... Such body modification would certainly help us solve some of our own energy problems. (hmm.. and smaller creatures can also probably think faster - there could exist a pressure for an intelligent being to have physically small brain).... Yes, maybe their megastructures are in a ten-meter range