Alderson disk

An Alderson disk is a hypothetical artificial astronomical megastructure. The disk is a giant platter with a thickness of several ######## miles. The Sun rests in the hole at the center of the disk. The outer perimeter of an Alderson disk would be roughly equivalent to the orbit of Mars or Jupiter. According to the proposal, a sufficiently large disk would have a larger mass than its Sun. The hole would be surrounded by a ################## #### to prevent the atmosphere from drifting into the Sun. The outer rim would take care of itself. The mechanical stresses within the #### would be far beyond what any known material can stand, thus relegating such a structure to the realm of exploratory engineering until materials and construction science become sufficiently advanced. Building a megastructure of this magnitude would require an amount of material that far surpasses the amount of material found in the Solar System.