He argued that as the structure would result in the large-scale conversion of starlight into far-infrared radiation, an earth-based search for sources of infrared radiation could identify stars supporting intelligent life. He speculated that this could be done via a system of structures orbiting the star, designed to intercept and collect its energy. Dyson theorized that as the energy requirements of an advanced technological civilization increased, there would come a time when it would need to systematically harvest the energy from its local star on a large scale. Inspired by the 1937 science fiction novel Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon, the physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson was the first to formalize the concept of what became known as the 'Dyson sphere' in his 1960 Science paper 'Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infra-Red Radiation'. Fictional depictions often describe a solid shell of matter enclosing a star – an arrangement considered by Dyson himself to be impossible. Since Dyson's paper, many variant designs involving building an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction, often under the name 'Dyson sphere'. Spheres detected in astronomical searches could be an indicator of extraterrestrial life. Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the escalating energy needs of a technological civilization and would be a necessity for its long-term survival. The concept was later explored by the physicist Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper 'Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation'. The first modern imagining of such a structure was by Olaf Stapledon in his science fiction novel Star Maker (1937). Because only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone.

Freeman Dyson, the first scientist to explore the conceptĪ Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output.

Starmaker olaf