How could a Dyson Sphere be destroyed through natural causes?
I would like to destroy a Dyson Sphere so it leaves big chunks of scrap metal with no habitable zones left, but still with enough structure to hold building-sized blocks.
The destruction shouldn't be man made.
Sphere Description (ordered from the sun to the outer layers):
- Habitable Zone: cities, agricultural farms, places
- Support Zone: electricity and water supply, first structure level
- Main structure: the other structure levels where everything is built on.
- Spaceports and Cargo System: an infrastructure on the outside where spaceships can dock and a network of "Trains" transport cargo
- Shield Pylons: for shielding the whole Thing against little meteoroids and ships.
I've described the hull of the sphere about 200 - 500 meters thick.
What could make such an impact on the Sphere? How would the destruction progress after the initial "blow" hit the Sphere?
ETA: This question has been refocused slightly, as such some of the answers below are a little out of date.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/275. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
What about the sphere being hit by a cosmic string?
Some excerpts from the Wikipedia page:
Cosmic strings, if they exist, would be extremely thin with diameters of the same order of magnitude as that of a proton, i.e. ~ 1 fm, or smaller.
[...]
Even though cosmic strings are thought to be extremely thin, they would have immense density, and so would represent significant gravitational wave sources. A cosmic string about a kilometer in length may be more massive than the Earth.
[...]
The only gravitational effect of a straight cosmic string is a relative deflection of matter (or light) passing the string on opposite sides (a purely topological effect).
Also on this blog entry on how to destroy the earth you find
- Whipped by a cosmic string
You will need: a cosmic string and a whole lotta luck
Method: Cosmic strings are hypothetical 1-dimensional defects in spacetime, left over from earlier phases of the universe, somewhat like cracks in ice. They are potentially universe-spanning objects, thinner than a proton but with unimaginable density - one Earth mass per 1600m of length! All you need to do is get a cosmic string near Earth, and it'll be torn apart, shredded, and sucked in. Probably the entire rest of the solar system would be too.
Earth's final resting place: String.
Feasibility rating: 1/10. Mind-bogglingly unlikely. Even if cosmic strings do exist, which they may not, there are probably only about ten of them left in the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. And they can't be steered, unless you have godlike powers, in which case you might as well chuck the Earth into the Sun and have done with it, so you're relying entirely on luck. This. Will. Never. Happen.
Source: this method suggested by Dan Winston.
BTW, you might also be interested in some of other entries of the latter site; after all whatever can destroy the earth should be able to do huge damage to a Dyson sphere, too.
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