"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
> Now bear in mind that these orbits are going to periodically
> obscure the star as they pass between the star and the earth
> along our line of sight. So the visible and IR power output
The object cloud depends on size, and size distribution. This could
involve anything from micron to meter size, and even larger.
We can't predict the distribution spectrum of the objects,
unfortunately.
> of the star are going to undergo wierd oscillations. Depending
I think it will look a lot like a very dusty star.
> on orbits of the planets from which these are being constructed
> these oscillations may range from days to years. Then there
> will be a long period shift as more and more of the energy
> output gets moved from visible into the IR (effectively making
> the star "cooler"). So we would have to observe these stars
> periodically to see what is happening to their light output.
This assumes you can actually watch the construction work. On one
hand, it's unlikely, since such things are extremely long-lived objects,
on the other hand you'll never observe a mature object because the
expansion front would have long sweeped through your own system,
restructuring it (and thus eliminating (emergence of) observers).
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:42 MDT