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'Alien Megastructure' Star Only Gets More Mysterious
Popular Science ^
| May 10, 2016
| Sarah Fecht
Posted on 05/22/2016 6:39:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
click here to read article
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To: oldasrocks
A really, really large fluttering space moth that can’t resist circling bright objects.....
21
posted on
05/22/2016 7:36:09 PM PDT
by
piasa
22
posted on
05/22/2016 7:42:12 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
23
posted on
05/22/2016 7:43:11 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
24
posted on
05/22/2016 7:48:41 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
To: ETL
25
posted on
05/22/2016 7:49:10 PM PDT
by
ctdonath2
("Get the he11 out of my way!" - John Galt)
26
posted on
05/22/2016 7:55:17 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
To: 2ndDivisionVet
I’ve read they’ve ruled out natural causes that could interfere with the star’s output, but how did they manage that? For instance, what if the star were 30% or 40% iron from the get go (don’t ask me how)? That would surely wreck havoc on the nuclear fires at the core, perhaps causing wild fluctuations in the output. And that’s only one possibility, I imagine. How could they rule out all such possibilities when we admittedly know so little about the wonders that are out there? To invoke aliens at this point is nutso, imo.
To: 2ndDivisionVet
The Pak Protectors are building something good.
28
posted on
05/22/2016 8:37:52 PM PDT
by
Toddsterpatriot
("Telling the government to lower trade barriers to zero...is government interference" central_va)
To: Toddsterpatriot
If you are the point you can build a dyson sphere, you are probably also at the point where you can disguise a dyson sphere. So I doubt is something like Pak Protectors, unless they know for sure nothing is out there that could ever be a threat. Which isn’t too comforting considering we can supposedly see this thing.
Freegards
29
posted on
05/22/2016 8:42:36 PM PDT
by
Ransomed
To: Boogieman
“Once a planet gets past a certain mass, gravity will cause the matter to compress until nuclear reactions start and it becomes a star.”
Wouldn’t that depend on what elements are present on the planet?
30
posted on
05/22/2016 8:48:46 PM PDT
by
babygene
(Make America Great Again)
To: SunkenCiv
To: piytar
.
That is like a litter of mice “capturing” the big black cat that is stalking them. They could capture his stomach.
32
posted on
05/22/2016 8:56:15 PM PDT
by
editor-surveyor
(Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
To: RinaseaofDs
33
posted on
05/22/2016 9:10:52 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
To: SunkenCiv; 2ndDivisionVet
Thanks for the links. It seems to me the answer to this mystery is that there isn’t just one answer.
Quote from first article linked:
“Boyajian and her colleagues considered a number of possible explanations, including variations in the star’s output, the aftermath of an Earth/Moon type planetary collision, interstellar clumps of dust passing between the star and earth, and some kind of disruption by the star’s apparent dwarf companion. However, none of their scenarios could explain all of the observations. “
That star could have a combination of any or all of the above scenarios, which would explain the varied dimming and the inconsistent timing.
34
posted on
05/22/2016 9:39:32 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: cba123
The start has a very large planet orbiting it. Simple answer. Very, very big.If you read up on the observances, they are not evenly timed and the dimming varies. I don't think there is a simple answer because the whole point of the articles on this star are that the dimming effect is irregular and complicated.
35
posted on
05/22/2016 9:44:44 PM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: UCANSEE2
36
posted on
05/22/2016 9:51:14 PM PDT
by
jrestrepo
(See you all in Galt's gulch)
To: piytar
“My bet that its a binary star system with one of the stars being a captured black hole.”
You beat me to it. That was also my conclusion. What else could reduce the visible light output from a star by 20%?
The only thing I’d add, is that it would have to be a very small black hole, or an extremely massive star.
I wonder if the observations show a significant wobble? That would be the smoking gun.
37
posted on
05/22/2016 9:56:28 PM PDT
by
Windflier
(Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
To: LibWhacker
“what if the star were 30% or 40% iron from the get go”
Then it would be classified as a planet.
Iron does bad things to stars.
38
posted on
05/22/2016 10:02:16 PM PDT
by
Windflier
(Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
To: piytar
On second thought (it’s late), a brown dwarf makes more sense. Even a small black hole would probably be eating the star already, and the orbital wobble of the star would be unmistakable.
39
posted on
05/22/2016 10:09:25 PM PDT
by
Windflier
(Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
To: Larry Lucido
Maybe its not a planet. Maybe its a space station.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!
40
posted on
05/22/2016 10:12:56 PM PDT
by
Jack Black
(Dispossession is an obliteration of memory, of place, and of identity)
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