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 |  Subject: ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star Keeps Getting Stranger  Tue Oct 11, 2016 8:12 am | |
| ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star Keeps Getting Stranger
October 11, 2016 by SkyWatch Editor
 KIC 8462852 hit the headlines last September, when a team of astronomers led by Tabetha Boyajian of Yale University announced that the star had dimmed dramatically several times over the past few years — in one case, by a whopping 22 percent. These brightness dips are too significant to be caused by an orbiting planet, so scientists began suggesting alternative explanations. Perhaps a planet or a family of orbiting comets broke up, for example, and the ensuing cloud of dust and fragments periodically blocks the star’s light. Or maybe some unknown object in the depths of space between the star and Earth is causing the dimming. The brightness dips are even consistent with a gigantic energy-collecting structure built by an intelligent civilization — though researchers have been keen to stress that this “alien megastructure” scenario is quite unlikely. (READ MORE) |
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