Could we create a portable sun that we could transport with us from one galaxy to another?

Question

If and when we need to escape our solar system how could we create a portable SUN solution to take with us and how would this effect the gravitional requirements of the propulsion systems in place to propel us and break away from our current orbit around our SUN?

I am not building a spaceship but am tring to alter the earths orbit and use that as the ship itself. Would be ver dark and cold for millions of years until we could move our planet into the orbit around a stable star in another galaxy, that is why we would need something similar to our sun on this journey. Since the object would be in orbit around us. I was thinking of detonating the moon, close enough and small enough not to burn us up.

Answer 1

Let's just state, for starters, that handles are going to be hard to install.

Assuming that you belong to a sufficiently advanced enough civilization with technology that would allow this sort of things, you could presumably accelerate and deflect enough large meteorites to pass close enough and transfer enough momentum to yank a planet out of its orbit If you now use enough deflected planets, properly aimed, you could also used the attraction of all those bodies to deflect large bodies, including stars.

Me thinks that could be done, but over the course of million -- if not billion -- of years, so early planning would be required.

Now, why would someone want to bring along a star, when those things are everywhere already?

If all you need is energy, the "portable sun" might be simply a thermonuclear reactor; which is supposed to do the same thing the sun does: fuse hydrogen nucleus together into helium and give off energy.

Answer 2

The sun is a fusion reactor with an unimaginably vast fuel supply. If we could develop a fusion reactor (and determine that it was the most cost-effective form of heat and energy to bring along), our only problem would be the fuel. Most of the mass of a colony expedition is likely to be the fuel. A fusion reactor can run on hydrogen and oxygen, fusing them into water, and hopefully the energy required to run it will not exceed the energy you get out of it. The byproduct is harmless but the fuel takes up space. When planning an extra-solar expedition, you need a very efficient power system to minimize fuel problems while doing the job (or a way to pick up fuel along the way).

As for gravity, you're not going to build anything massive enough to have an appreciable gravity field. If you did, that old fuel bill goes up, because you have to haul everything, the fuel, the engine, the cargo, and you. It would be impractical to launch anything larger than a small asteroid. The more massive the object, the longer the acceleration (and the mission).

Portable suns are not very practical. You might ask yourself what you want in a portable "sun", that couldn't be delivered by a smaller, cheaper power system that would still do the job.

Answer 3

If a society possessed extremely advanced technology, and possessed a great deal of patience (millions and millions of years worth), then I suppose it would be possible for them to devise a technology to harvest free floating hydrogen - which they would need in enormous quantities - and gather it in sufficient mass that a star would form.

However, given the incredible expenditure of resources that would be necessary, and the thirty million year wait you'd need for that nuclear fusion payoff, why would anyone do such a thing?

Stars are one of the most abundant celestial bodies in the universe. Despite their size, they are a dime a dozen. Who needs a suitcase a thousand times the size of the Earth to pack up a sun, when others just like it are found just about everywhere you can go?

Answer 4

I think if/when we are leaving this earth to go and settle down on some other planet, we will choose a planet which is inhabitable due to other things like having its own sun and atmosphere etc. i dont think we need to create a duplicate sun and carry it around to the next planet. we would instead create possibilities of better atmosphere like air, water etc on the new planet which already has sun. it will be cheaper and easier... but i think that will still take thousands of years for the situation to arise when we will have no option but to leave this planet and go somewhere else....

Answer 5

I think a portable Sun would look like a lot of lights in our habitat as we traveled from one existing Sun to another. See

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Stanford-torus-by-donald-e-davis-med.jpg

Answer 6

LOL, too much scotch whisky, Scotty.