What would happen if you were to build a mirror around the sun and had a way to use the energy being reflected

Question

does anyone remember what happend to that race on star trek where they built a dome around a star? I mean you could probably start making matter with energy if you had the ability to harness the power of a "star" What if you could do the inverse for a black hole? Also what would be the effect of doing the same to the planet earth instead of useing it to gain energy you used it to shield it from energy? Would the earth start to super cool and become a black hole? How much do you trust the people in power and what are you gona do about it?

Answer 1

To start with, you wouldn't want to encase the sun in a mirror (even if suitable materials were available) as this would simply make the sun burn hotter. And faster. Not to mention probable effects on its magnetic field.
For purposes of obtaining power, you would want to encase it in something like a solar panel array, and then beam the power back to Earth. You'd need a lot of power if you put this shell inside the orbit of Earth since it would cut off all light to the planet. Although the shell itself would soon radiate in the visible spectrum as it heated up. The outside of the shell would need huge heat sinks.
Trek actually borrowed this idea from a scientist named Freeman Dyson. His fanciful idea was to build a shell, not just to capture energy, but to live on. The shell would be 93+ million miles in radius -- the distance of Earth from the sun, though I suspect with all that contained heat and hard radiation, it would be necessary to build it farther out. Say at the orbit of Saturn. It would be a collosal feat of engineering and even a Dyson sphere 93M miles in radius would use up every available speck of matter in the solar system and from several other nearby systems.
SF writer, Larry Niven, modified this idea in his two classic 'Ringworld' books. The ringworld is a band a million miles wide spinning in an Earth orbit. The floor and thousand-mile-high side walls house the recycling systems and within is a complete ecosystem. Day and night are provided by a series of 'shadow squares' in a smaller concentric orbit. These black body squares also collect energy for the ringworld.
A more 'practical' approach would be to begin building space stations in the Trojan points of Earth's orbit, 60 degrees ahead and 60 degrees behind. As they are expanded on five sides, they could become collectors for solar energy, platforms for agriculture and living space. Eventually, they could be extended almost all the way around -- all the way if you wanted to cannibalize the Earth.
A Mars orbit would probably be better as it COULD one day create a complete ring with a mean distance from the sun of 141.5M miles, the circumference of the ring would be 889.0728M miles (6.2832r). With a width of even 1 mile, this would create 889.0728M square miles of surface... a lot of room to grow corn. Aside from the reduced amount of materials needed, a ring also does not capture so much solar radiation that heat and hard radiation become a problem.
Now if all you want to do is shield the Earth from more of the hard radiation that ionizes the upper atmosphere, what you need to do is build three or four space stations in geosynchronous orbit inside the Earth's path. These would capture solar power and probably also have nuclear power in order to generate a conical magnetic field between them which would deflect heavy particles. They might also have a filter stretched between them (made of what material, I don't know) that could reduce the amount of infrared and ultraviolet light that gets to us.
Such a filter would cool the Earth somewhat and you'd have to be careful not to precipitate a global ice age. But no, the Earth would not and never will become a black hole (although it could possibly be swallowed by one in the very distant future). Black holes require an enormous amount of mass. They occur (at this stage of the universe's development), when a star's mass becomes so great that its gravity prevents it from radiating anything. Conjecturally, this can only happen in galactic cores where stars are packed so close that they collide, creating super-super giants with too much mass. It has been recently substantiated, I believe, that there are black holes in the core of the Milky Way. If so, it's probable that they will one day suck in all the matter in the galaxy.
As to trusting people in power, that's another topic entirely.

Answer 2

why build a mirror if you could make your own sun.
This is the future of nuclear fusion.
It's like creating a sun in earth.
but it will take decades for commercial use.
something like 40 to 50 years from now.

inverse of black hole?
im not really good in this, but it's inverse could be possibly a supernova, so u couldn't harness it. its like an explosion.

Answer 3

you dont need to put a mirror around the sun.we here in israel are the brain behind solar power.my home and all other homes are mostly solar efficient.so i like millions around the world use this type of energy .you only have to pay to have it installed and the rest is free energy from mikhal in israel.

Answer 4

It would be way too hot inside the mirror.