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[The Elite]

I think it means that the star's brightness is dipping, meaning something is passing in front of the star.

 

[Octavianus]

Maybe they're building a dyson's sphere up there.

 

[ced]

It's not aliens, but it's still going to be cool I'm sure.

 

[Amir0x]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

 

[The Auxiliary]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

gene, meme, scene

 

[Patrick S.]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Gun, dollar bill, condom.

 

[somecrazymember]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Dildo
Handspinner
Gun

 

[Atlas157]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

1. The Dark Side of the Moon
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

[The Elite]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

A sword
A plant
A telescope

 

[phanphare]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

plastic, oil, and a bomb

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Telescope. A diagram of carbon. A large painting of the evolutionary tree of life.

 

[The Elite]

plastic, oil, and a bomb

You set us up the bomb.

 

[crazyprac]

Wait... There's an update on this story?? Shit what I miss? Is it aliens?!?! Or just a form of mass circling the planet... Aka a moon? 😑

 

[Octavianus]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

A selfie stick

Telescope. A diagram of carbon. A large painting of the evolutionary tree of life.

This is a good answer actually.

 

[The Elite]

Wait... There's an update on this story?? Shit what I miss? Is it aliens?!?! Or just a form of mass circling the planet... Aka a moon? 😑

Star is dimming.

Observe!

 

[liquidtmd]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Dollar bill
A grave stone
One of our comparably shit space ships

 

[Orbis Tabula]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Three pigs labelled 1, 2, and 4.

 

[ced]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

I hate to be that person but shouldn't this question just be its own thread? I'm sure now this thread will be full of dicks, dildos and trumps.

 

[SS4Gogita]

Wait... There's an update on this story?? Shit what I miss? Is it aliens?!?! Or just a form of mass circling the planet... Aka a moon? 😑

We have no idea what is, but we've never been able to observe a dip as it's happening. Depending on the telescopes that we can get with an eye on this, this will give us a lot more information about what might be causing these massive dips.

 

[WordAssassin]

Wait... There's an update on this story?? Shit what I miss? Is it aliens?!?! Or just a form of mass circling the planet... Aka a moon? 😑

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they've totally ruled out it being a Moon?

Like the entire reason for the interest here is that it doesn't display any kind of pattern, which I imagine a moon orbiting a celestial body would have.

 

[ced]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they've totally ruled out it being a Moon?

Like the entire reason for the interest here is that it doesn't display any kind of pattern, which I imagine a moon orbiting a celestial body would have.

Correct, pretty much anything except interstellar material has been ruled out. I guess Aliens hasn't but we shouldn't invoke aliens jus because we can't explain something yet.

Glad they're getting some data again.

 

[belvedere]

So what's different about what they're observing now than what they had observed originally?

 

[Fenderputty]

This thread is like a very slow heart attack.

Lol

 

[ced]

So what's different about what they're observing now than what they had observed originally?

The previous dips were found by people digging through old Kepler data, its last dip was actually occurring when Kepler went offline.

Now they have telescopes etc watching it in real time and collecting data.

 

[Preezy]

So what's different about what they're observing now than what they had observed originally?

More aliens.

 

[FlyinJ]

My theory is dark matter is all Dyson-sphered stars by billions of extinct (or maybe not) civilizations.

 

[maquiladora]

dat dip doe

 

[Poppy]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

me and my two cats

get me the hell out of here

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

]Correct, pretty much anything except interstellar material has been ruled out.[/B] I guess Aliens hasn't but we shouldn't invoke aliens jus because we can't explain something yet.

Glad they're getting some data again.

Holy shit.

So whatever we discover is causing this bound to be a groundbreaking discovering (let's not assume aliens). Probably some previously unobserved phenomenon.

Only issue is how do we realistically figure out what is actually causing these dips? =/

 

[John Dunbar]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

thor 2: the dark world on dvd, blu-ray and vhs.

 

[FlyinJ]

Holy shit.

So whatever we discover is causing this bound to be a groundbreaking discovering (let's not assume aliens). Probably some previously unobserved phenomenon.

Only issue is how do we realistically figure out what is actually causing these dips? =/

We cut taxes for the rich and then the rich will trickle down funding to scientific research.

 

[Fenderputty]

So are we hoping to get a better idea of the composition of what's causing the dips?

 

[sc0la]

So are we hoping to get a better idea of the composition of what's causing the dips?

Here is a good video with some solid speculation on the composition of "the dip" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dZPQdZLyHYE

Spoiler

#SorryNotSorry

 

[bonesmccoy]

yes yes but can we kill it

 

[TwoDurans]

Oh man. Do we really want Trump in the White House when we make first contact? They'll never come back.

 

[Airola]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

1. Piss in a jar.
2. Shit in a jar.
3. Trump's picture with the word "God" written on it.

And when they are gone we'd have a hearty laugh and people finally come together since we have symbolically given the weight on our shoulders for other galactical cultures to wonder. It's the ultimate practical joke and it will create world peace.

 

[Fenderputty]

I love the 90's

 

[Lé Blade Runner]

Every time I see this thread at the top of the page, my heart skips a beat. Can't wait to hear more info!

 

[Sax Russel]

I love (hate?) seeing this thread bumped back up every few months.

 

[SilentRacoon]

They better have a mom named Martha on there or Batman gonna fuck their shit up.

 

[orava]

The dyson swarm builders are back from the coffee break.

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

Velcro, bacon floss, and a phat joint.

 

[jayu26]

Let's science this shit up. At very least I am hoping for something with weird orbit around the star.

They better have a mom named Martha on there or Batman gonna fuck their shit up.

Don't worry, Martha just has to be the name of alien's Earth mother. Batman is not that picky.

 

[PantherLotus]

TLDR for newcomers: the news is that the dip in light is happening in real time, which means we can read spectra data as it comes in. Which theoretically should tell us what the thing(s) blocking the light is made of.

 

[Voidwolf]

Let us say aliens were around this star. Ten years from now they arrive here, and ask for three items that best represent human culture before they leave.

You are chosen to lead the group tasked with picking these items. What do you choose?

The Empire Strikes Back
Ocarina of Time
Fidget Spinner

Spoiler

Can't have them thinking we're perfect.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Couldn't it be just the stars are just dimming due to dying or something like that?

 

[Unai]

Couldn't it be just the stars are just dimming due to dying or something like that?

No, that was ruled out as well.

 

[HStallion]

Its actually some mind boggling huge alien creature that consumes entire stars.

 

[gutshot]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure they've totally ruled out it being a Moon?

Like the entire reason for the interest here is that it doesn't display any kind of pattern, which I imagine a moon orbiting a celestial body would have.

A celestial body orbiting a star is not a moon. It's a planet. But you are correct that that has been ruled out because the dips are a) irregular and b) enormously large.

For example, Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, blocks only about 1% of the light from our Sun. The dimming recorded here is blocking upwards of 22% of the light.

Couldn't it be just the stars are just dimming due to dying or something like that?

A dying star would slowly get dimmer over time, not suddenly dim and then brighten again.

 

[akileese]

No, that was ruled out as well.

I think the last thing that wasn't entirely ruled out, or maybe it has been since then was a cluster of comets or maybe it was asteroids?