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DYSON SPHERE RESEARCH PAPER

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DYSON SPHERE RESEARCH PAPER

MELİH GÜLAÇTI,1 MUSTAFA BİR,1

1Collegeof Electrical-Electronics, Antalya Bilim University, Antalya 07190, Turkey
*Corresponding author: melih.gulacti@std.antalya.edu.tr & mustafa.bir@std.antalya.edu.tr
Received 19 February 2019; revised 15 April 2019; accepted 15 April 2017; posted 31 May 2019

ABSTRACT WHO IS FREEMAN J. DYSON?

With this idea, we will give information about the Freeman
Dyson sphere is a theorem that will be very difficult to realize. Dyson who shaped the world of science. Who is Freeman
In this article, we will give information about the Dyson sphere. Dyson? What are the achievements?
Technology is developing in order to meet the increasing need
and a lot of energy is used as a result of this development. As Freeman Dyson is now retired, having been for most of his
people grow and technology evolves, our energy needs are life a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in
increasing. This level of development is called the Type 1, Type Princeton. He was born in England and worked as a civilian
2, Type 3 civilization level. Each of these civilization levels has scientist for the Royal Air Force in World War II. He graduated
energy needs. Scientists are doing research on this subject. The from Cambridge University in 1945 with a B.A. degree in
largest and cleanest source of energy we can get is now the mathematics. He went on to Cornell University as a graduate
Dyson sphere. The Dyson sphere has a flawless design to meet student in 1947 and worked with Hans Bethe and Richard
all your energy needs. Feynman. His most useful contribution to science was the
unification of the three versions of quantum electrodynamics
INTRODUCTION invented by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga. Cornell
University made him a professor without bothering about his
Originally proposed by the legendary physicists, Freeman
lack of Ph.D. He subsequently worked on nuclear reactors, solid
Dyson, Dyson remains one of the most exciting theoretically
state physics, ferromagnetism, astrophysics and biology,
proposed ideas in the world of astrophysicists today. The idea
looking for problems where elegant mathematics could be
came to Dyson after reading the 1937 novel Star Maker. In an
usefully applied.
article dated 1960, Dyson proposed an article in Science
magazine entitled 'Search Artificial Star Sources of Artificial
Infrared Radiation'. He described a superstructure built near or
near the sun, which could capture the energy of the Sun and
return it to Earth. Even if this happened, the Sun would not
have to rely heavily on fossil fuels or other existing energy
sources, even with only a part of the energy civilization. [1]

Defenders of solar energy know that only a small part of the

total energy of the sun strikes the Earth. What if we collect all the
solar energy as a civilization? So, sometimes we used a kind of
Dyson sphere called the Dyson shell or structure. Freeman J.
Dyson, a physicist and astronomer, first discovered this idea as a
thought experiment in 1960. Advanced civilizations in our
galaxy would inevitably use. Dyson argued that the search for
evidence of the existence of such structures could lead to the
discovery of advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy.
Freeman Dyson at the Long Now Seminar, San
In recent years, astronomers explored that possibility with a Francisco, October 5, 2005.
bizarre star, known to astronomers as KIC 8462852 – more Photo by Jacob Appelbaum/Wikimedia Commons.
popularly called Tabby’s Star for its discoverer Tabetha
Boyajian. This star’s strange light was originally thought to He has written a number of books about science for the general
indicate a possible Dyson sphere. That idea has been discarded, public. “Disturbing the Universe” (1979) is a portrait-gallery of
but, in 2018, other possibilities emerged, such as that of using people he has known during his career as a scientist. “Weapons
the Gaia mission to search for Dyson spheres. [2] and Hope” (1984) is a study of ethical problems of war and
peace. “Infinite in All Directions” (1988) is a philosophical
meditation based on Dyson’s Gifford Lectures on Natural
Theology given at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
“Origins of Life” (1986, second edition 1999) is a study of one of
the major unsolved problems of science. “From Eros to Gaia”
(1992) is a collection of essays and lectures, starting with a
science-fiction story written at the age of nine, and ending with
a mugging in Washington at age fifty-four. “Imagined Worlds”
(1997) is an edited version of a set of lectures given in 1995 at
the Hebrew University in Jerusalem about human destiny,
literature and science. “The Sun, the Genome and the Internet”
(1999) discusses the question of whether modern technology
could be used to narrow the gap between rich and poor rather
than widen it. “The Scientist as Rebel” (2006) is a collection of
book reviews and essays, mostly published in The New York
Review of Books. “A Many-colored Glass: Reflections on the
Place of Life in the Universe” (2007) is an edited version of a set
of lectures given in 2004 at the University of Virginia. Dyson is a
fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the U.S.
National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society
of London. In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for
progress in Religion, and in 2012 he was awarded the Henri
Poincaré Prize at the August meeting of the International
Mathematical Physics Congress. [3]

What’s Nikolai Kardeshev’s Scale and harmless energy?

The scale developed by Nikolai Kardashev in 1964

categorizes the level of development of a civilization according
to the amount of energy produced and the method of Fig2. Radiation Level in Daily Life
production
In addition, we must take into consideration that we must not
harm nature and human beings while producing our energy to
achieve Type 1 civilization level. Figure 2 below shows the
amount of radiation in daily life. Nuclear power plant accidents
until the time we have shown in Figure 3.

Fig1. Nikolai Kardashev Scale

According to this scale, the level of civilization in the

universe is divided into three. These are Type 1, Type 2 and
Type 3. These levels of civilization are developing in direct
proportion to energy use and energy needs. In the Type 1
civilization, which we are in, but we do not fulfill the
requirements, we must use all clean energy sources on the
planet in a way that will not harm the human and nature. To be
at type 1 civilization level, we must be able to use all the clean
energy sources in the world and to be able to convert the
energy from the stars to the electric energy. But at present, we
provide more than half of the energy required by our planet
from fossil fuels. Serious predictions of fossil fuels will be
exhausted in 2050. After the fossil fuels are exhausted, the use
of clean energy sources will increase and then these clean
energy sources will not be enough for us due to the results of
developing technology. Most people say that if clean energy
sources are insufficient, they can close this gap with nuclear
power plants. But they are connected to the elements in the
world in nuclear power plants. These elements are uranium,
Fig3. Nuclear Power Plant Accidents
thorium. If one day will end in these elements, we can see the
world expecting troublesome days about energy.
Even if the energy obtained from nuclear energy is too much, it M = ρ4πr2t
cannot meet the requirements of Type 1 civilization level.
where ρ is the density of the material of the Sphere and t its
What will happen after completing the Type 1 civilization thickness. For Earth-like density, radius of 3 × 106 km and
level? thickness of 1 meter, we find a mass of ∼ 6 × 1023 kg, slightly
less than the mass of the Moon! Obviously, this is a small fraction
of the usable mass in the solar system, and the mass of one
Type 2 level of civilization is a level where the energy terrestrial planet will easily give a 10 m-thick shell, so that the
resources on the planet are not enough and now a different inhabitants will not worry very much about accidentally
energy source works. Different types of resources are needed in puncturing it. “d” with natural infra-red sources in the same part
Type 2 civilization and these are the other planets close to our of the sky.
planet and the sun and stars in the center of our planet's
system. What is the Temperature of Space?
A fictional Dyson Sphere. Such a structure surrounds the entire
star and can make use of all the energy it produces. Type 2
civilizations will most likely find ways to use all the energy of Regarding the fact that space is part of space/time and they
their stars with the help of a Dyson Sphere (or similar) are inseparable, such a question asked as per this chapters
technology. They are civilizations that can collect all the energy titular is as useful as asking:
emitted by their star, for example, a civilization that can build a So, I refer to “space” in the following further examples as a term
Dyson sphere. They can collect up to 4 x 1033 erg / sec (4 x for outer space in vacuo and extra-planetary events unless
1026 watts) of energy, which is all the energy we can get from stated otherwise. To investigate the thermal energy transfer
the Sun. Alternatively, the fusion power of the star can be used possibilities of a Dyson Sphere, one must first ask:
as a large-scale reactor to meet the needs of this civilization [4]. Following the zeroth law of thermodynamics, for a systems
In type 3 civilizations, biological vitality will be intertwined temperature to be measured, a thermometer works by being in
with technology. In such civilizations, it can be very difficult to physical contact with the matter being observed and then
define the vitality. taking the temperature of the connected matter with either
Using all of the energy produced by the galaxy in which they mercury in the system, thermal sensors or thermistors should
exist, these civilizations dominate such energy as 4 × 1044 gig / electronic readings wish to be taken. Essentially when using a
sec (4 x 1037 watts). They can colonize the galaxy, extract thermometer or temperature sensor, the reading you obtain is
energy from hundreds of millions of stars, hover in interstellar the temperature of the thermometer/sensor itself when it has
space and capture countless planets. reached thermal equilibrium within an enclosed system, so to
measure the temperature of “space” is quite nonsensical in
For people, access to such a species means hundreds of its question (disregarding the occasional radiating particle
thousands of years of evolution, both biological and mechanical. collision).
People who are purely biological are likely to be seen as
defective, inferior or non-inverted by their cybernetic As the zeroth law of thermodynamics states, heat can be
companions [4]. transferred via a system of
bodies that are within physical contact. I shall describe The
Zeroth Law here in a basic model.
How will the Dyson sphere will be possible? If you have a system of three bodies of mass, for this example
we will call them “Object Alpha”, “Object Bravo” and “Object
Charlie” for references sake, the following scenario shall
The suggested example of using these energy sources describe the zeroth law in effect. If “Object Alpha” is in physical
is the Dyson sphere. The Dyson sphere is first shown as a subject contact with “Object Bravo”, but not in physical
in the series and films, but later scientists realize that there is contact with “Object Charlie”, if “Object Charlie” is also in
something that can be done by working on it. In order to make physical contact with “Object
the Dyson sphere a perfect engineering, we need to discover new as the thermal energy (heat) transverses via the atomic
materials for our perfect spacecraft to be able to make our structure and molecules of each object and thermally excites
production base on another planet, the materials in the world, the connecting molecules and thus transfers energy in the
not enough materials. First, the dyson sphere is designed to turn system, this zeroth law of thermodynamics is very easily
around the sun, but the gravitational law will not allow it. The observed on Earth but in the imperfect vacuum of open space,
Dyson sphere has the same importance as our ancestors by there is less solid matter combined in contact than here
exploring the fire and making the technological leap. So how do on Earth (in regard to the vastness of the known universe).
we design the Dyson Sphere? For the Dyson sphere, we can do it
perfectly with satellites and a series of optical panels that we will
send into the orbit of the sun.

The aim of the hypothesis is building huge structure

to harness 100% of its energy and also living on it. The
structure’s building block is special block, which can transform
one star’s whole power to useable energy for us. The mass
required for the construction of the Dyson Sphere is
This diagram represents heat transfer via the zeroth law of total isolation, but due to the laws of thermodynamics, the
thermodynamics to help visualise the zeroth law in motion: civilisation that created the
hypothesised Dyson Sphere and using such large flows of
energy, whether or not it wished to
communicate with other species it would have no choice via the
laws of thermodynamics but to
dispose of waste heat, this heat must then be radiated into
space in the form of infra-red
radiation. Dyson then proposed that uncommunicative
civilizations could possibly be detected
from sources of infra-red radiation emitted from the
gravitational wells surrounding the mass of
a star if they used a flow of energy large enough when
compared with natural infra-red sources
in the same part of the sky.

Per Kardashev’s Scale, a civilisation that can create a Dyson

Sphere and harnessing all of a star’s
energy would be categorised as a Type 2 civilisation.
The Dyson Sphere
A Dyson Sphere is a hypothesised extra-terrestrial
Sun to Earth Scale
megastructure that was used to solve the question of “What if
alien civilisations do not wish to communicate?”.
Two curious Professors Cocconi and Morrison at Cornell
pondered this question and came to the conclusion that radio
signals in space should be searched for (Morrison and
Cocconi, 1959), and ultimately this lead to the creation of SETI
(Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence) when Frank Drake at
The Green Bank Observation began his search in a project
he named Project Ozma, in Drakes words he wrote, "It is named
for the queen of the imaginary land of Oz, a place very far away,
difficult to reach, and populated by exotic
beings" (Drake, 1959).

The Howard Tatel telescope

Fig5. Earth to Scale,NASA,2013

Due to the tremendous scale of a living stars size and the

energy output in its various states of nuclear fusion, the
civilisation that created such a megastructure to encompass an
entire star would need to use a dense material that is capable of
supporting itself under the massive gravitational pull of the
host star, as the amount of photons striking the inner surface of
the sphere would also be contained, this will almost certainly
require an outlet for such pressures and energy in order for the
structure to maintain its integrity without collapsing.

There is also the factor of volumetric expansion per the

Fig4. National Radio Astronomy Observatory,1959 material used in the spheres construction material, the formula:

In 1960 Professor Freeman Dyson proposed that it was indeed

possible, and if such a civilisation were to exist it would be one
of extraordinary capability when it came to the use and
harnessing of energy for work, also to contain radio emissions explains that per the materials coefficient of linear expansion
it must be an enclosed system for (multiplied by 3 for volumetric
expansion), when used in combination with the zeroth law of
thermodynamics that there will be waste heat that leaves the The physicist and natural philosopher Ludwig Boltzmann along
structure itself, as it will eventually reach thermal equilibrium with the theoretical physicist Max Planck theorised that every
as this is what the universe strives for. physical body of mass will spontaneously and continuously
I will hypothetically speculate on the possibilities of heat emit electromagnetic radiation, this is known as Black Body
transfer via the sphere, and apply the laws of thermodynamics Radiation, and as such Boltzmann theorised that the sun emits
to the hypotheses of Kardashev and propose that there may in the region of 5700 K at the photosphere (Ces.fau.edu, 2016),
be other viable methods of detection, should such an object this is a very high temperature and as such, should a Dyson
exist. If there is a sealed Dyson Sphere with an area exact of Sphere contain said energy, supporting life without a vent once
our stars (taking the exact measurement and not leaving space it reached thermal equilibrium seems unfitting when the
in-between for a more direct measurement), the area of the models for life are based on “The Goldilocks Zone”, or “Not too
star would be 6,078,747,774,547 km2 and by using Dennis L. hot, not too cold.” (NASA, 2003).
Mammana’s pre-stated measurement that there is one atom per
cm³ in “empty” space, if we convert that to metres we
reach: White Dwarfs, Life and Dyson Spheres

1 m³ = 1,000,000 cm³
It is well-known (see any introductory astronomy textbook)
Now taking the area of an atom, using the model used mainly in that stars are classified by using the so-called Hertzprung-Russel
particle and quantum physics of 1×10-12 m, or one trillionth of a (HR) diagram, where each star is represented as a point in the
metre (Mark Winter, 2014), and multiplying it by 1,000,000 absolute magnitude-spectral class (i.e. Luminosity-Surface
cm³. We have an area of space filled with 1x10-6 m of atoms per Temperature) plane. The stars are not distributed uniformly on
cubic metre, when this is multiplied by the area of the outside that plane but come in three main groups (Fig. 2). The diagonal
wall of the hypothetical Dyson Sphere it would mean that there band is called the main sequence, the group at the lower left are
are potentiall of the individual atoms combined area colliding the white dwarfs, and the group roughly upper right are red
with the outside sphere at any stage. giants. The names are appropriate: temperature decreases to the
As heat flows from hot to cold, a cold reservoir must be right, and high temperature stars are blue-white, low
maintained, if this were to be within a 100% sealed Dyson temperature stars are red. Also, the luminosity of a star in terms
Sphere, eventually the gaseous content and energy within the of its radius, and surface temperature is given by
sphere will reach thermal equilibrium, everything will be at the
same temperature and no useful. L = 4πR2σT4

If you think of a heat engine (or even electrical as there will be so we have
frictional heat) like water flowing down the side of a hill, energy
flows from a higher temperature to the lower temperature. It is R ∝ √ L T2
this flow that an engine converts into useable work.
therefore radius increases from the lower-left to upper right.

It turns out that these three groups represent evolutionary

stages in the life of a star. The main sequence consists of stars
fusing hydrogen, whereas the red giants are stars who have
ended their main-sequence life and now are fusing higher
elements at furious rates, white dwarfs are lower mass stars that
have exhausted the possible fusion reactions and are slowly
cooling by radiation. The white dwarfs represent one of the three
possible end-states of stellar evolution, the other two being
neutron stars and black holes.
Fig6. Carnot Engine,2014

It does not matter how high the top of the hill is (using the hill
height as an analogy to the temperature of the high
temperature reservoir), you will only get the amount of work
from the elevation of the reservoir (temperature of the sink
reservoir (cold)) that the heat flows into.

As per the heat exchange of radiated energy via rays in space,

if the star is completely covered by the structure, the radiated
energy transferred within the sphere itself would be completely
contained, the photosphere is the shell of a star in from which
light is radiated, assuming that the Dyson Sphere itself may be
just outside the perimeter of a star’s photosphere (the deepest
region of a luminous object).
 probably arise during the main sequence period of its star, and
find ways to survive the red giant stage; maybe temporarily
migrating to an orbit farther from its star, either to a planet, or
failing/rejecting4 that, to orbital habitats a la O’Neill. In fact, such
an effort would provide the experience needed before
undertaking the construction of the Dyson Sphere around the
eventual white dwarf.

Conclusion:

We argued that most stars (if any) harboring intelligent life must end
up as white dwarfs, hence it is natural to also consider these objects in
addition to main sequence stars as central objects for Dyson Spheres.
More importantly, it is possible to find parameters for these DS’s such
that both the temperature and gravity are close to the values for the type
of life we are familiar with. This should be contrasted with the usual idea
of the Dyson Sphere, AU-sized and around a main-sequence star, where
gravity is negligible on the DS, hence artificial gravity may be needed, a
technology which might be impossible. Other benefits are much less
need for building materials compared to the ‘standard’ DS, and the
possibility of converting trash into energy at nuclear fission-reactor
efficiencies. A drawback is much stricter strength requirement for the
building materials. We conclude that 106 km-scale Dyson Spheres built
Fig7. The Hertzsprung-Russel Diagram.
around white dwarfs are at least as realistic as the ‘standard’ ones, and
possibly more probable. Unfortunately, they would also be harder to
detect.
Figure: The Hertzsprung-Russel (HR) diagram for a
representative sample of stars; 22000 stars from the Hipparcos
Catalogue together with 1000 low luminosity stars (red and
white dwarfs) from the Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars.
Adapted from Richard Powell via Wikipedia.
Stars with masses of up to approximately 4 solar masses will
eventually become white dwarfs. The limit is uncertain, since
stars eject some mass into space during the red giant stage, and
the criterion is the mass that remains. Even then, rotation makes
a difference, but a non-rotating star will turn into a white dwarf
if the remaining mass is less than the Chandrasekhar mass limit
which is 1.4 solar masses.
Presumably, conditions should stay consistent for a relatively
long time for life to flourish and diversify; extreme deviations
result in mass extinctions. Also, presumably, intelligence arises
only after a long process of evolution. Since the main-sequence
lifetime of a star is roughly proportional to the inverse cube of
its mass, one would expect the stars of most planetary systems
harboring intelligent life to eventually end up as white dwarfs. If
interstellar travel is fundamentally problematic, e.g. due to
energy requirements –kinetic energy of a relativistic spaceship
must be several, maybe tens of times its rest energy– or the
vastness of interstellar distances implying one way or
generations-long trips, building a Dyson Sphere around the
newly formed white dwarf might be the natural way of
sustaining the existence of the civilization.
Actually, the red giant stage is also quite long, about a billion
years for a solar-mass star (it decreases with mass), so it might
seem that life/intelligence/civilization could also develop during
that stage. However, conditions like radiative flux and stellar
wind, even the mass of the star, are quite variable during the red
giant phase, as opposed to the main-sequence period, when they
are stable. Hence, while the astronomically-long-term outlook of
an intelligent civilization is subject of conjecture, a civilization
set to build a Dyson Sphere as discussed in this work would
References
1. Taylor Donovan Barnett, Everything You Need to Know About
Hypothetical Sun Megastructure, the Dyson Sphere, March 06,
2019
2. Deborah Byrd, Human World, August 30, 2018
3. Michele Turansick
http://www.sns.ias.edu/dyson

4. KARDESHEV OLCEGI ILE TANISIN , November,23,2017

https://dunyalilar.org/kardashev-olcegi-ile-tanisin.html/
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Imaging and Applied Optics Technical Digest 2012 (Optical
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