In preparing a presentation, I wanted to compare the power per square meter of a laser beam on the surface of the Earth to the power per square meter of the light of the brightest star in the sky…

It turns out that the intensity of light from Sirius (incident on the surface of earth) is 0.1 to 0.5 microWatts per square meter- integrated over the surface of the Earth that means the total power incident on Earth from Sirius is ~ 13 to 60 Mega-Watts… enough to power a few 10′s of thousands of homes.

I am not sure what I expected, but the result surprised me…