KIC 8462852 tagged posts

This illustration depicts an uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists are one step closer to solving the mystery. A team of more than 200 researchers, including Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Assistant Professor Jason Wright and led by Louisiana State University’s Tabetha Boyajian, is one step closer to solving the mystery behind KIC 8462852, or “Tabby’s Star,” nicknamed after Boyajian, is otherwise an ordinary star, about 50% bigger and 1,000 degrees hotter than the Sun, and about than 1,000 light years away. However, it has been inexplicably dimming and brightening sporadically like no other...

This artist’s conception shows a star behind a shattered comet. One of the theories for KIC 8462852’s unusual dimming is the presence of debris from a collision or breakup of a planet or comet in the star’s system, creating a short-term cloud that blocks some starlight. Credit: Image is courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

Star KIC 8462852 in constellation Cygnus has been raising eyebrows both in and outside of the scientific community for the past year. In 2015 a team of astronomers announced that the star underwent a series of very brief, non-periodic dimming events while it was being monitored by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, and no one could quite figure out what caused them. A new study from Carnegie’s Josh Simon and Caltech’s Ben Montet has deepened the mystery...

Allen Telescope Array. Credit: Seth Shostak, SETI Institute

A recent analysis of data collected by Kepler space telescope has shown that this star, informally known as Tabby’s Star, evidences aperiodic dimming of 20% and more. While several natural explanations for this strong change in luminosity have been proposed, one possibility is that a technologically adept civilization has built megastructures in orbit around star, causing the dimming.

One example of a large-scale astroengineering project would be the construction of a so-called Dyson swarm of solar panels for large-scale energy collection. Other possible structures include artificial space habitats, or a planet-size or larger occulting object intended to provide a long-lasting signal to other galactic inhabitants.

In order to inve...

The Kepler space telescope’s planet-hunting mission was launched in 2009 but lost its key orientation abilities in 2013

Mysterious light on a distant star could be a sign of alien civilisation, some astronomers have claimed, stirring controversy. Not so fast, said NASA.

“The mysterious star, KIC 8462852, does have an odd light curve,” said Steve Howell, working on the Kepler space telescope’s planet-hunting mission. “It does not look like a normal exoplanet or binary star light curve. However, I think that saying that it immediately is alien is a bit of a stretch,” Howell said in an email to AFP.

Kepler observes distant planets and stars by observing transits, or the dimming of light when another celestial body passes in front...