My Sketchbook | The Universe and Dyson Spheres

I wanted to be an astronomer when I was young. My parents used to have this set of science encyclopedia that I read as a kid. English is not my native language so reading those encyclopedias was a struggle but it never prevent me from dreaming to be an astronomer. But alas, it was just a pipe dream. However, it doesn't mean that I can't educate myself about astronomy. Maybe not the technical and hard stuff but they are thousands of articles on the internet that I can read. Like for example, recently I was reading an article about the Dyson Sphere. So what is Dyson Sphere?

"A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output." ~ Wikipedia

In other words, a Dyson Sphere is a gigantic megastructure build by an advanced civilization that completely encircles a star to harvest its energy. It's probably a massive structure full of solar panels. Sounds like something from science fiction? Yeah but the concept has been around since 1930s and a physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson formalized the concept in 1960.

In October 2015, astronomers discovered a strange pattern of light near a distant star called KIC 8462852 also known as Tabby’s star. They wondered if it was caused by a Dyson Sphere made by aliens! But in January 2018 after a lengthy research it was finally concluded that it was not caused by aliens but by a giant cloud of dust encircling the star. You can read more about it here: No alien megastructure around mysterious 'Tabby's star'.

The concept is amazing, isn't it? It's widely use in popular culture; in TV shows, movies, science fiction novels etc.

The universe is vast. There are at least one hundred billion galaxies and gazillions of stars. Personally I think there are other civilizations out there, probably more advanced than us. And I think they have the capability to build massive megastructures like Dyson Spheres or something much more than that. It's mind boggling and beyond our mind to comprehend.

The painting

This watercolor painting is very easy to make. I am using the wet-on-wet technique to paint the night sky by mixing turquoise, ultramarine, purple and violet. When the paper is completely dry I used an old toothbrush to paint the stars. And lastly, I drew a silhouette of a man using a permanent marker. Easy peasy. Give it a try!

Here are the progress photos: