On Sun, 5 Dec 1999, Amara Graps wrote:
>
> It depends how you define "vicinity". If you consider ~1 parsec
> away from the Sun as "vicinity", then that's OK. (see below)
Amara, this cracked me up. I doubt anyone but an astronomer would consider 1 parsec (3.26 ly) as within our "vicinity".
>
> Hope that this answers your question ...
>
Very nicely. It also means that I've got to revise the MBrain
calculations a bit (since in the "vicinity" of the solar system,
things are warmer than I expected). It means that for a MBrain to
get the best internode optical communication transmission and the
least heat radiation (back from "local" dust), it is
going to have a big job to do sweeping through a large volume
of the surrounding space to get rid of all the dust (and dust
sources). That probably slows down its construction times
by quite a bit.
Would the dust density in the halo be reduced so significantly that it might make that a much more attractive construction area?
Also, is there an estimate on the total mass of the dust in the solar system?
Robert