Alien Megastructures May Be Physically Feasible, a New Study Suggests

Colin McInnes, an engineering scientist at the University of Glasgow, is the author of a study modeling the feasibility of orbit‑modifying projects.

He presents a simplified blueprint for passively stable megastructures such as stellar engines and Dyson bubbles.

Stellar engines (for example, a Shkadov thruster) use a star's radiation pressure to shift the star's orbit and can move entire solar systems.

A Dyson bubble or swarm is a dense collection of reflectors surrounding a star to harvest its light and provide vastly more energy.

In the right configuration these megastructures could remain stable for untold eons; one motivation is that the Sun will gradually brighten and eventually make Earth uninhabitable.