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How to Move the Sun: Stellar Engines

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · 19.5M views · 2019-12-22 · 8:39

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Overview

Kurzgesagt explains stellar engines such as the Shkadov thruster and Caplan thruster, which could move the Sun and solar system across the galaxy over millions of years to avoid hazards and reach new regions.

On Hacker News

HN returns to it whenever moving the solar system, Kardashev civilizations or generation ships come up, with some calling it their favorite Kurzgesagt video.

Recommended by 3 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2020–2025

Topics

Cosmology & astrophysicsSpace exploration & spaceflightFuturism & technology and society
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stellar engineshkadov thrustercaplan thrusterkardashev scalemegastructureskurzgesagt

What people said

gcanyon · 2024-02 · Strong recommendation

In case anyone is interested in how grabby aliens (or we!) could travel the galaxy, Kurzgesagt has an excellent video on building a stellar engine to move our solar system at up to 50 light years per million years. Setting aside considerations of whether we'll survive the next few decades as a technological civilization, let alone the next few millions of years, the Caplan engine would let us colonize a significant fraction of the galaxy within a billion years or so. [VIDEO]

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Diti · 2021-05 · Strong recommendation

Out of every video Kurzgesagt has ever produced, my favorite is this one, which talks about a stellar engine that a type Ⅱ civilization could be using: [VIDEO]

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gcanyon · 2025-10 · Recommendation

You might enjoy Kurzgesagt's video on moving the Sun (and with it the whole solar system) they propose a method that would theoretically let us colonize the galaxy in a reasonable (but not trivial) time frame. To your exact point though, since we're moving the whole solar system, everyone would be living their whole lives on the/a ship. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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