Building a Dyson Sphere: Feasibility and Challenges Discussed

Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical mega-construction that would make it possible to use absolutely all the energy released by a star. Its concept was first proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960.

Science journalist Jaime Green now in her new book The Possibility of Life she stated that if we really wanted to build a Dyson sphere, we would have to, among other things, demolish a planet roughly the size of Jupiter.

“If you wanted enough material to build something like that, you’d basically have to take apart a planet, and not a small one — more like Jupiter,” she noted.

Step by step…

But this in itself certainly does not mean that a similar project is unfeasible. E.g. astrophysicist Jason Wright pointed out that construction could take place over a long period of time, bit by bit. As a simile he used the rise of Manhattan.

“It was kind of planned, but nobody ever said, ‘Hey, let’s build a huge city here.’ Each generation simply made it a little bigger,” he argued in an interview with Green.

For the sake of interest, let us add that some astronomers are also searching for Dyson spheres, who are trying hard to discover signs of the existence of extraterrestrial life.