On 12/2/05, Michael Adams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hum, so a sphere would not show up in normal light freqs
Probably but not necessarily. It wouldn't necessarily *emit* visible light on its own, but it could *reflect* light, which black holes don't, and the designers might install some light sources on the outside for navigational purposes if they expect visitors. > It would be black as a hole, but black body radiation, what is that? It's not a particular type of radiation so much as a sort of radiation profile. If you heat an object (*any* object, from a lump of rock to a star), it starts to emit EM radiation, ramping up to a peak of output at a particular frequency depending on the temperature. The hotter it gets, the more total EM radiation it puts out and the higher the frequency of the peak. Relatively cool objects peak in the low infrared, hot objects go up through visible light and beyond. It's the exact same thing that would happen if you hit a piece of metal with a very hot blowtorch. It'll start to glow a dull red, then get brighter and whiter. Because the Dyson sphere is warmer than a lump of interstellar rock, it'll emit more IR and thereby be more "visible" to anyone searching those frequencies. It may not show up on visible light telescopes, but it'll be a suspiciously large lump on IR telescopes. > Why infared, since it if you find a way to convert heat to power, There are eventual limits to converting waste heat into useful power, what with the laws of thermodynamics and all. -- My wife's food blog is quite interesting: http://thehappysorceress.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
