Macy Huston
December 2, 2021
Zoom Recording
Abstract:
The search for signs of extraterrestrial technology, or technosignatures, includes the search for objects which collect starlight for some technological use, such as those composing a Dyson sphere. These searches typically account for a star’s light and some blackbody temperature for the surrounding structure. However, such a structure inevitably returns some light back to the surface of its star, either from direct reflection or thermal re-emission. Due to their negative gravitothermal heat capacity, irradiated stars expand and cool, particularly in convective regions. In this talk, I will present MESA simulations used to quantify this effect in main sequence stars for a variety of Dyson sphere configurations. I will conclude with a description of when this effect matters observationally and our color-magnitude diagrams generated for a broad range of possible Dyson sphere-star systems.