# Can an Earth like planet support life by building a Dyson Sphere across a White Dwarf or a Red Dwarf star? [closed]

Is it possible to depend on a white dwarf as our power source, provided that we harness 99% of energy?

Can life be sustained?

How it will change the climate and the seasons of earth if it is our only star and source of solar energy?

(Expecting it to change since earths orbital mechanics will also change)

• Technically Earth's orbital mechanics don't change. On the inside of a dyson sphere, all the gravity of the sphere cancels out. It's called the shell theorem. Welcome to worldbuilding.SE. When you get a moment, please take our tour and visit our help center to learn more about us. – JBH Jun 9 '18 at 5:52
• @JBH You just inspired me to ask a question.... – Joe Bloggs Jun 9 '18 at 12:51
• Unclear what you're asking. If you have a Dyson sphere, you don't have a planet supporting life. How are the two connected? – SRM Jun 13 '18 at 15:35
• Also, good questions but one to a post please. If you need followup questions as separate posts, great. However, with multiple questions, the answer to one question might invalidate another question, making it unanswerable. – ShadoCat Jun 13 '18 at 16:06

As for the Dyson Sphere, it should be good, I suppose. A hot white dwarf, with the numbers I found, radiates about $1\times 10^{23}W$ of energy. Sounds like a lot, and I suppose it is, but not compared to even our relatively small star. We're still talking about a billion times our current energy needs though (current energy consumption figures are around $1.7\times10^{13}W$ per year). 99% percent efficiency is amazing though, so even accounting for the vastly increased needs of such a civilisation, it should be okay. I do need to point out though that this is a diminishing returns situation. White dwarfs don't do anything. No fusion, no reactions. They're just really hot. That means that they're going to cool and you're going to get less energy as time goes on. Eventually, it's just going to be a cold mass floating in space with no energy output at all. Sure, this will take about a quadrillion years, give or take, but there'll be a point long before that where it's not economical to keep the Dyson sphere running, or where it won't capture enough energy.