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'Alien Megastructure' Mystery May Soon Be Solved
Space.com ^ | October 28, 2015 | Mike Wall - Space.com Senior Writer

Posted on 10/28/2015 12:56:27 PM PDT by ETL

The mystery behind a strangely dimming star could soon be solved.

Astronomers around the world are keeping a close eye on the star KIC 8462852, which has dimmed dramatically numerous times over the past few years, dropping in brightness by up to 22 percent. These big dips have spurred speculation that the star may be surrounded by some type of alien megastructure — a hypothesis that will be put to the test if and when KIC 8462852 dims again.

"As long as one of those events occurs again, we should be able to catch it in the act, and then we'll definitely be able to figure out what we're seeing," said Jason Wright, an astronomer at Pennsylvania State University.

"The simplest measurements we can take — just looking in different wavelengths [of light] — should rule out, or suggest, alien megastructures right away," Wright told Space.com.

KIC 8462852 is a large star that lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth. The dimming events, which were observed by NASA's Kepler space telescope between 2009 and 2013, seem too substantial to be caused by an orbiting planet, many astronomers say.

Another plausible explanation — a planet-forming disk — doesn't seem to make sense, either, because KIC 8462852 appears to be a mature star whose planets (if it has any) have already formed.

So scientists are entertaining a number of other ideas, hypothesizing that the dimming might be caused by a swarm of exocomets or perhaps even some type of orbiting alien megastructure. This latter possibility is unlikely, researchers stress, but it's still worth checking out. Indeed, astronomers have aimed radio telescopes at KIC 8462852 to search for signals that may have been generated by intelligent aliens.

And follow-up is proceeding on other fronts as well. A number of optical telescopes are watching the star, waiting for another multiday dimming event to take place. Once such an event begins, large scopes outfitted with spectrographs will swing into action, studying and monitoring the various wavelengths of light emanating from KIC 8462852, Wright said.

"That'll tell us what that material is that the starlight is being filtered through," he said. "It'll tell us if maybe we're looking at ordinary astrophysical dust; it'll tell us if we're looking at gas."

"If we see any color dependence in the dimming — if it gets dimmer in the ultraviolet than it does in the infrared, for instance — then that would rule out that whatever we're looking at is a solid object," Wright added.

Wright thinks the data will eventually show that KIC 8462852's dimming events are caused by dust. If that turns out to be the case, it would raise another mystery for astronomers to solve — namely, where all that dust is coming from. Is it being shed by exocomets, for example, or is the material trapped in a giant ring system around a Saturn-like alien planet?

"The amount of dimming we get tells us something about the size of the dust — is it as fine as smoke, or is it pebbles and things?" Wright said. "That'll help us figure out which of those scenarios we're looking at."


TOPICS: Extended News; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: alienmegastructure; catastrophism; comets; dysonsphere; haltonarp; jasonwright; kic8462852; ringworld; seti; space; star; stringtheory; tabbys; tabbysstar; tabethaboyajian; xplanets
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To: ETL

Still maybe the best science fiction film of all time. Besides the thirty years ahead of their time special effects it had Anne Francis in a miniskirt, and Leslie Nielsen as commander before his Airplane “and don’t call me Shirley” and Police Squad “I knew it!” comedic days.


21 posted on 10/28/2015 1:45:42 PM PDT by katana (Just my opinions)
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To: marktwain

And flying very erratically! Thanks, though.


22 posted on 10/28/2015 1:47:17 PM PDT by Finny (Voting "against" is a wish. Be ready to own what you vote for.)
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To: ETL

A Dyson sphere? LOL

I am sure that we can tell from here....


23 posted on 10/28/2015 1:49:33 PM PDT by BillT (If you can not stand behind our military, you might as well stand in front of them!)
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To: ETL

A Dyson sphere? LOL

I am sure that we can tell from here....


24 posted on 10/28/2015 1:49:45 PM PDT by BillT (If you can not stand behind our military, you might as well stand in front of them!)
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To: ETL

A Dyson sphere? LOL

I am sure that we can tell from here....


25 posted on 10/28/2015 1:49:58 PM PDT by BillT (If you can not stand behind our military, you might as well stand in front of them!)
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To: Finny

It was a weather balloon.


26 posted on 10/28/2015 1:50:02 PM PDT by MeganC (The Republic of The United States of America: 7/4/1776 to 6/26/2015 R.I.P.)
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To: ETL
Hmmmmm ... must be pretty rare atmospheric conditions. First time I've seen this in the 11 years I've been here and 25 years easy of enjoying So Cal's evening air traffic shows on a nightly basis from other places I've lived down here (I don't smoke in the house; a couple of evening smokes are routine), but anything's possible, especially in the area populated by about eight million people! I look for it every night now but it's been too overcast most nights.
27 posted on 10/28/2015 1:53:49 PM PDT by Finny (Voting "against" is a wish. Be ready to own what you vote for.)
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To: Vermont Lt

Nope. I reject that suggestion out of hand. If that’s what it was, I most assuredly would have seen it many times before. Sorry! :^)


28 posted on 10/28/2015 1:54:52 PM PDT by Finny (Voting "against" is a wish. Be ready to own what you vote for.)
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To: katana
Besides the thirty years ahead of their time special effects it had Anne Francis in a miniskirt

Image and video hosting by TinyPic

29 posted on 10/28/2015 1:56:23 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: ETL

Inspiration for the great (never really used) machine of Epsilon 3 in Babylon 5? I see some myself.


30 posted on 10/28/2015 1:58:03 PM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: katana

It is a very good movie.


31 posted on 10/28/2015 1:58:43 PM PDT by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
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To: BillT

Why not - they constructed an entire family and tribal structure, clothing, facial features, customs, etc

from a single “missing link” tooth (that turned out to be from a pig).


32 posted on 10/28/2015 2:00:46 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: ETL

No mystery whatsoever once you admit that stars are effected by galactic Birkland currents. 99.9% of all matter in the Universe is in the plasma state, yet astronomers refuse to acknowledge that plasma is electrical in nature (lightning is plasma) and continue to call the Solar Electric Current “solar wind”. An electrical interpretation in astrophysics would quickly evaporate “big bang”, “black hole”, “dark matter”, “dark energy” and other kludge theories based, not upon observation but upon mathematical modeling and computer simulation. I’m gonna tell you one thing, kid...GIGO.

Much more info here:

www.thunderbolts.info


33 posted on 10/28/2015 2:04:37 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: ETL

Global warming...


34 posted on 10/28/2015 2:06:15 PM PDT by subterfuge (TED CRUZ FOR POTUS! TED CRUZ FOR POTUS!)
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To: frithguild

“Ring World”


35 posted on 10/28/2015 2:08:49 PM PDT by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui
yet astronomers refuse to acknowledge that plasma is electrical in nature

Damn near everything is basically electrical in nature, including us.

36 posted on 10/28/2015 2:13:56 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: lonevoice

ping


37 posted on 10/28/2015 2:16:06 PM PDT by Pride in the USA
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To: Yollopoliuhqui

“Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid, liquid, and gas. A plasma has properties unlike those of the other states.

A plasma can be created by heating a gas or subjecting it to a strong electromagnetic field applied with a laser or microwave generator. This decreases or increases the number of electrons, creating positive or negative charged particles called ions,[2] and is accompanied by the dissociation of molecular bonds, if present.[3]

The presence of a significant number of charge carriers makes plasma electrically conductive so that it responds strongly to electromagnetic fields. Like gas, plasma does not have a definite shape or a definite volume unless enclosed in a container. Unlike gas, under the influence of a magnetic field, it may form structures such as filaments, beams and double layers.

Plasma is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the Universe (the only matter known to exist for sure, the more abundant dark matter is hypothetical and may or may not be explained by ordinary matter), most of which is in the rarefied intergalactic regions, particularly the intracluster medium, and in stars, including the Sun.[4][5] A common form of plasmas on Earth is seen in neon signs.

Much of the understanding of plasmas has come from the pursuit of controlled nuclear fusion and fusion power, for which plasma physics provides the scientific basis.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28physics%29


38 posted on 10/28/2015 2:17:54 PM PDT by ETL (Ted Cruz 2016!! -- For a better and safer America)
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To: Finny

It could be satellites. The ones in equatorial orbits will travel on an east-west trajectory, generally around where the Milky Way is in the sky, if you can see that where you live. In North America, that’s going to be between 30-50 degrees north from the horizon.

Of course there are lots of other kinds of satellite orbits, but from the way you describe it, satellites in equatorial orbit seem the most likely suspect to me.


39 posted on 10/28/2015 2:19:18 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: ETL

Watt are you saying?


40 posted on 10/28/2015 2:19:34 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$ ("It gets late early around here..." Yogi)
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