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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Re: Observing Dyson spheres
Message-ID: <6554@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 31-Mar-86 17:55:18 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6554
Posted: Mon Mar 31 17:55:18 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Mar-86 17:55:18 EST
References: <[AI.AI.MIT.EDU].22222.860328.KFL>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 13

>   In fact the IRAS observed what may be a partial Dyson sphere last
> year.  Fron the vicinity of the star Vega, large amounts of infrared
> was observed.  This doesn't quite match what is expected for a Dyson
> sphere...  More likely, it is just so much uninhabited sand and gravel,
> perhaps in the process of forming a solar system, that IRAS observed.

Alas for this theory, IRAS found a number of those dust disks, and one
of them (around Beta Pictoris) was photographed in late 1984.  Looks much
more like a random mass of dust than an artificial construct, although the
resolution of the picture is admittedly rather low.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry