Skip to main content

Could we steal the power of a black hole? - Fabio Pacucci

496,482 Views

4,545 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

Let’s Begin…

Imagine a distant future when humans reach beyond Earth, forge cities on planets thousands of light-years away, and maintain a galactic web of trade and transport. What would it take to make that leap? And where would we get enough energy to power that civilization? Fabio Pacucci explores the possibility of harnessing energy from a black hole to power a galactic civilization.

Create and share a new lesson based on this one.

About TED-Ed Animations

TED-Ed Animations feature the words and ideas of educators brought to life by professional animators. Are you an educator or animator interested in creating a TED-Ed Animation? Nominate yourself here »

Meet The Creators

  • Educator Fabio Pacucci
  • Director Franco Barroeta Fonseca
  • Narrator Addison Anderson
  • Storyboard Artist Franco Barroeta Fonseca
  • Illustrator Claudio Javier Espinosa Carrillo
Avatar for TED Ed
Lesson creator

by TED-Ed

Back in 2015, an American astronomer named Tabetha S. Boyajian, at Yale University at the time, discovered a very peculiar star, nowadays named Tabby’s star in her honor. This star shows very unusual fluctuations of its brightness, which are very challenging to explain with current models of stellar variability. Although it is very likely that the origin of these fluctuations is completely natural, it was suggested that this star could be surrounded by an alien megastructure, which would at times eclipse the light coming from the star. What are the pros and the cons of this theoretical explanation?

Comments are closed on this discussion.

Avatar for Hansarandi Adithya
Lesson completed

Pros are We can use the start's structure and the energy level just to pass the technological and Physics era, at a high level as well as widen our knowledge about our solar system. Cons are since the alien's subject is no much reliable the data we got is no accurate or didn't have enough also the megastructure theory is also a competitive discussion which got both true and false.


Avatar for LAUREN FOX
Lesson completed

The cons are that the explanation is probably not true. Even if it were true, it would do us no good other than prove that aliens exist.The pros are that if it really did have a structure around it, we could examine it and improve our own architecture.


Avatar for Acy Brown
Lesson completed

The pros are that since the universe is so huge, there might be other intelligent life out there. The cons are that we have no other evidence of aliens.


Avatar for Elaine Guo
Lesson in progress

But I don't really think that alliens built a structure around it.

More from Out Of This World