Posted on 05/22/2016 6:39:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Every now and then, a distant star called KIC 8462852 dims by as much as 20 percent. That's huge. Even a passing planet as big as Jupiter would only block about 1 percent of the star's light.
Ruling out a planet, scientists have no idea what could be eclipsing the star (which is informally known as 'Tabby's Star'). The leading hypothesis is a family of really big comets, but that doesn't quite fit. Astronomer Jason Wright pointed out that the light patterns are consistent with what we'd expect if aliens had built a Dyson swarm of solar collectors around the star to harness its energy. This hypothesis isn't perfect either.
The mystery deepened when astronomer Bradley Schaefer found evidence suggesting the star had also been dimming by about 16 percent each century. Such a huge drop in light over time made the comet hypothesis seem less likely. Compared to the 36 giant comets you'd need to create the star's 20 percent dimming, you'd need 648,000 giant comets to explain the century-long dimming...
(Excerpt) Read more at popsci.com ...
Yes, a very big one, thus the title of the article: "alien megastructure"
It's pretty cool that legit scientists are speculating along the same lines that you are!
The truth is it’s not even a star. It’s a lightbulb. When we look out at space, we’re really looking at a painted ceiling.
Sure, but all the planets that are big enough to get close to stellar masses are gas giants, and their atmospheres are composed mostly of helium and hydrogen.
I say it is a fluorescent star, and it’s flickering at a very low rate.
By the way, fluorescent bulbs suck.
Would not a star in orbit near a black hole (or other high gravity object) periodic dim in light radiating towards us ?
as the star move relatively closer or farther to black hole from our perspective... more or less light radiation would be captured by the black hole
you do not have to move behind something have light block
gravity itself can grab and hold light radiation
During a recent observation of KIC 8462852, astronomers at Vanderbilt University were startled when it appeared the distant star had gone completely dark.....until they realized they had forgotten to remove the lens cap from their telescope.
Source?
For what it's worth...
Alien City 15 Alpha
http://rederager.deviantart.com/art/Alien-City-15-Alpha-327156889
Kewl...
Gas giants often have a layer of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a gas implicated in global warming. You must believe in manmade global warming.
You government stooge you.
Yes, exactly my point. Couldn't call it a planet, that's for sure, not having nearly half again as much mass as the sun.
But the dimming is irregular. If it involved a single object in mutual orbit, the dimming would be consistent.
I miss the irregular... that just odd..
Well doggone it.
There you go, being all logical and stuff.
We can calculate how massive a planet would have to be to do that. There’s a line, however, in which the gravitational forces associated with the mass would start to cause fusion to occur, and turn the super massive planet into a star. Saturn and Jupiter are more failed stars than they are planets.
I forget how much more massive they’d have to be, but it is quite a bit more massive.
20% is a lot in terms of occlusion. They can likely calculate the radius of the orbit (approximate radius if elliptical).
It’s an intriguing phenomenon.
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