Dyson sphere hunt using Kepler data

[bananas]

http://www.kurzweilai.net/dyson-sphere-hunt-using-kepler-data

Dyson sphere hunt using Kepler data
October 12, 2012

Geoff Marcy has received a grant from the UK’s Templeton Foundation to look for Dyson spheres, Paul Gilster writes on Centauri Dreams, the news forum of the Tau Zero Foundation.

Freeman Dyson hypothesized the vast structures over fifty years ago that could ring or completely enclose their parent star. Such structures, the work of a Kardashev Type II civilization — one capable of drawing on the entire energy output of its star — would power the most power-hungry society and offer up reserves of energy that would support its continuing expansion into the cosmos, if it so chose.

Marcy’s plan is to look at a thousand Kepler systems for telltale evidence of such structures by examining changes in light levels around the parent star.

Interestingly, the grant of $200,000 goes beyond the Dyson sphere search to look into possible laser traffic among extraterrestrial civilizations. Says Marcy:

<snip>

[bmbmd]

1. The Ringworld series

by Larry Niven was based on the premise of the discovery and exploration of a modified Dyson sphere type structure. The mathematics of such a structure is truly staggering-enough room and enough energy efficiency for thousands and thousands of earth populations. It was an interesting concept when I first read it in the seventies, and remains an interesting topic today. I just re-read Ringworld and Ringworld Engineers when I was on vacation last month. One of my favorites. Louis Wu, indeed.

[Confusious]

2. I find it interesting and ludicrous

At the same time.

[FogerRox]

4. Whacky and cool, very cool

[pokerfan]

3. related reading

Searching for Kardashev III civilizations

…what would happen for a civilization on its way to becoming a type III civilization, a type II.5 civilization so to say? If it was busily turning stars into Dyson spheres the civilization could create a “Fermi bubble” or void in the visible light from a patch of the galaxy with a corresponding upturn in the emission of infrared light. This bubble would grow following the lines of a suggestion attributed to Fermi… that patient space travelers moving at 1/1000 to 1/100 of the speed of light could span a galaxy in one to ten million years. Here “Fermi bubble” is used rather than “Fermi void”, in part because the latter is also a term in solid state physics and also because such a region would only be a visible light void, not a matter void.

http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2010/09/searching-for-kardashev-iii.html