The strange star that has serious scientists talking about an alien megastructure
 |
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
Posted on 10/15/2015 8:55:50 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
The paper doesn’t mention aliens, and it doesn’t even imply aliens. Not directly, at least. But the astronomers found a star so odd, with behavior so difficult to explain, that it’s clear something weird is happening there. And some of the astronomers who did the work are now looking into the idea that what they’ve found might (might!) be due to aliens.
But don’t let this idea run away with you. The scientists involved are being very skeptical and approaching this the right way.
The star is called KIC 8462852, and it’s one of more than a hundred thousand stars that was observed by NASA’s Kepler mission. Kepler stared at these stars, looking for dips in their brightness. These very slight dimmings can be due to many factors, but one is if the star has planets, and one (or more) of them orbits the star in such a way that it passes directly in front of the star as seen from Earth. If it does—what we call a transit—we see a tiny diminution of starlight, usually by less than a percent.
Thousands of exoplanets have been found this way. Usually the planet is on a short orbit, so the dip we see is periodic, repeating every few days, weeks, or months, depending on the size of the planet’s orbit.
KIC 8462852 is a star somewhat more massive, hotter, and brighter than the Sun. It’s about 1,500 light-years away so it’s too faint to see with the naked eye. The Kepler data for the star are pretty bizarre: There are dips in the light, but they aren’t periodic. They can be very deep; one dropped the amount of starlight by 15 percent, and another by a whopping 22 percent. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Just as naval ships use a signal lamp as a visual signaling device for optical communications so advanced alien lifeforms are using this star to signal other intelligent lifeforms.
/sarc. ... but, seriously, this is an interesting phenomenon that I will try to follow. Thanks for posting.
Well, I’m confident it’s not an alien structure orbiting the star using it as a power source. But very odd nonetheless and does not fit the pattern of what we’ve been seeing for a long time.
They probably have us listed on their star maps thus: WARNING! ATTEMPT NO LANDING HERE!!!
;)
Washington Post story on this subject posted earlier:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3349066/posts
The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/
The Economic Times:
TIME
http://time.com/4074957/flickering-star-aliens/
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/15/world/extraterrestrial-intelligence-anomaly/
The abductiobs were just for taste- testing. —.hopefully we flunked that too
Ringworld? Well, why not? We already have Hindmost Obama on this planet....
Point an existing radio-telescope array at it and listen for a while. What’s the harm? What’s the cost?
Then there is that NSA document that provides information related to the slightly successful decoding of an ET signal. That document is available on the NSA public website.
Neat story.
The strange star that has serious scientists talking about an alien megastructure
|
||
| · join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe · | ||
| Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar · | ||
Almost like saying, “Look at all the galaxies! Ours has life, why not others? Hey, I may be on to something here... Dang, I think I may have discovered alien life out there!”
Wouldn’t that merely indicate multiple planets, some of them large?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
