Feasibility of Space Nets

Space nets are a theoretical space organism designed by Tim B, to quote him:

Imagine a life-form shaped like a giant net. It gathers space dust into itself to grow, using light from stars both to power its growth and for propulsion as a massive light-sail.

The strands of the net are far enough apart that gravity falls off faster than it gathers and the strength of the strands is more than enough to keep its shape.

These creatures could grow to theoretically unlimited size, just constrained by raw materials and solar energy. You could well see them sweeping into star systems and raiding the rings around planets, asteroids and even small moons for raw material "” cleaning them out then moving on growing all the time.

They could reproduce by firing off spores "” or more likely just by splitting in two once their size became too large for them to sustain with available resources.

Is this kind of organism even possible? If so, how would it evolve?

posted about 8 years ago

Uncle Tres‭

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