Dyson tree

External image
image icon Artist's concept of a spherical Dyson tree
Freeman Dyson in 2005

A Dyson tree is a hypothetical genetically engineered plant (perhaps resembling a tree) capable of growing inside a comet, suggested by the physicist Freeman Dyson.[1][2][3] Plants may be able to produce a breathable atmosphere within the hollow spaces of the comet (or maybe even within the plants themselves), utilising solar energy for photosynthesis and cometary materials for nutrients, thus providing self-sustaining habitats for humanity in the outer solar system analogous to a greenhouse in space, a shell grown by a mollusc or the actions of thermogenic plants, such as the skunk cabbage or the voodoo lily.[4]

A Dyson tree might consist of a few main trunk structures growing out from a comet nucleus, branching into limbs and foliage that intertwine, forming a spherical structure possibly dozens of kilometers across.

  1. ^ Basu, SK (2007). Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Astrophysics. Global Vision Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 9788182202207.
  2. ^ Freeman Dyson, Part I: From Physics to the Far Future. Closer to Truth. Vol. 2101. 9 December 2022. Event occurs at 22:43. Retrieved 1 May 2024 – via YouTube.
  3. ^ Freeman J. Dyson (November 1997). "Warm-Blooded Plants and Freeze-Dried Fish". The Atlantic. Vol. 280, no. 5. pp. 71–80. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  4. ^ Lyra, Wladimir (8 March 2020). "Living in a comet: How to build a Dyson treehouse". Las Cruces Sun-News. Retrieved 2021-05-17.