Astrophysicists Propose New Way to Discover Dyson Sphere Megastructures

Illustration of Dyson Sphere or dyson ball that surrounds the star. (Photo: Wikimedia/Flicker/Kevin Gill)

JAKARTA – The Dyson Ball Hypothesis or Dyson Sphere, a megastructure that surrounds a star and absorbs the energy of the solar system, is still being explored by scientists to this day.

Freeman Dyson, the creator of this hypothesis, stated that it is very possible that there is a very advanced extraterrestrial civilization. According to Dyson, this megastructure can be detected through the heat emitted from infrared waves.

Scientists themselves already have a suitable tool to detect this megastructure, namely using the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Quoted from Sciencealert, Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center (PSTI) Professor Jason T. Wright proposed a new way to search for Dyson Balls.

If previously researchers searched by emitted heat, Wright suggested searching through activity indications. Wright also proposed this based on the Landsberg limit concept.

Although advanced technology is said to be able to develop rapidly due to the exploitation of large amounts of energy, it should be noted that this ability still has limits. This limit is of course in line with the amount of energy, such as infrared and ultraviolet, that the star releases.

Dyson himself believes that this energy needs to be released by the star in the form of waste heat, but there is no underlying theory regarding the form of this waste. Therefore, Wright and other astrophysicists proposed a theoretical model to determine the thermal signature.

In the theory created, Wright has a different opinion regarding the structure of the Dyson Ball. He touched on the technicalities of building megastructures by placing a view on current civilization. Wright believes someone will be motivated to build a Dyson Ball to increase the livable volume.

While some people believe that the Dyson Ball is very large and cool to maximize efficiency, Wright believes otherwise. According to him, the correct optimal configuration is a very small hot ball.

In addition to a fixed mass budget, this size is capable of capturing most, but not all of the light. The search parameters could also be extended to temperatures well above 300K because Wright believed that extraction of starlight worked more efficiently the closer to the star.

In addition to focusing on the laws of physics, Wright considered the engineering challenges involved. Therefore, Wright applied radiation thermodynamics as a computational engine and observed the consequences of the Dyson Sphere.