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BDO of the Day: Halo

Today’s Big Dumb Object (BDO) is a Halo Ring or simply Halo, from the video game of the same name. At a diameter of about 6,000 miles, a Halo is closer in size to a Bishop Ring than to a Banks Orbital, though it’s closest of all to the diameter of the Earth.

Halos (there are many) are about 200 miles wide, yielding a surface area of 4 million square miles, which is only a fiftieth of an Earth (or a long, skinny Canada). But what they lack in size, they make up for in dumbness. Unlike Banks' populous, expanding Orbital collection, the Halos are abandoned ancient technology with an apocalyptic purpose. For more on Halos, see the official Halo site, Gamasutra’s Halo Science 101, or Halopedia (including their list of Halo novels.)