In Search Of The "Dyson Sphere"- Scientists Receive Funding

A star-surrounding Dyson Sphere could be solid, swarm-like, or anywhere in between.
(source: Sentient Developments)

Astroboffins to search for mega-massive alien power plants

Dyson Spheres – not just for Star Trek anymore

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco 

Posted in Science, 5th October 2012 20:01 GMT

A team of alien-hunting astroboffins has been awarded a grant to search the sky for immense engineering feats that would reveal the existence of astral civilizations far, far more advanced than us puny humans.
Lead by assistant professor Jason Wright of Penn State's Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, the team will use NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to search the sky for the infrared fingerprints of possible Dyson Spheres, energy-capturing mega-structures named after all-around smart guy Freeman Dyson, who postulated their existence in a 1960 paper.
According to Dyson, any advanced civilization would inevitably use up all of the resources on their planet, and would be forced to look elsewhere for energy. The most obvious place, he surmised, would be the star around which their planet orbits.
To capture that energy, they would construct the aforementioned Spheres – mind-bogglingly immense structures that would surround the star and collect its energy. These structures could be actual spheres, but more likely would take the form of rings, swarms, or banded spherical collections of energy harvesters.
No matter what form they might take, they'd undoubtedly give off infrared radiation that could be detected by such sensitive sensors such as those aboard WISE – and that's where Wright and his team come in.
The Atlantic reports that Wright has been awarded funding from the John Templeton Foundation to conduct his search, in response to his proposal, "Constraining the Abundance of Kardashev Type II and III Civilizations From Large Area Infrared Surveys".
We'll get back to Kardashev's civilization types in a moment.


Continue reading here: The Register


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