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[HammerOfThor]

But if it is alien activity, we are seeing it as it was many many years ago, right? Given that it takes the light x years to get to us.

 

[Stinkles]

I'll be sad if it turns out to be planetissimal debris, or a comet/asteroid cloud etc. As long as it's something new, I'll be happy. Like even something as dull as rapidly orbiting dust cloud. That would be weird enough to sate my desires.

 

[danthefan]

But if it is alien activity, we are seeing it as it was many many years ago, right? Given that it takes the light x years to get to us.

Yes, as many years ago as it is light years away. It's thought to be around 1300 light years away which isn't that far really in cosmic terms.

 

[Sapiens]

It's not aliens - but think of all the cool new stuff people learned as a result. We're all the better for this.

 

[Fenderputty]

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.

This is what I was thinking. Any idea on how long analyzing the data takes?

 

[Unai]

It's not aliens - but think of all the cool new stuff people learned as a result. We're all the better for this.

Have people really learned anything yet?

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?

I don't know if that was ruled out.

 

[Stinkles]

Have people really learned anything yet?


.

They've learned that previous assumptions about things that cause star dimming may have another addition. That's how science works, now we start ruling things out and testing theorems.

There's always the possibility that we never find out what's causing it because of the distances involved, but I bet somewhere a cosmologist has a theory and they'll be using observations to test it.

 

[Alex_Mexico]

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

Trump doesn't want aliens coming from Mexico, how do you think he'll react with aliens coming from another solar system? He'll want to bomb them and we'd all die in a microsecond.

 

[PantherLotus]

Ok everyone needs to read this

1. If you're asking 'did they think of this?', yes they thought of that. And outside of [new phenomena we don't know yet] or [literally aliens], they -- multiple astrophysicists looking at the data -- ruled it out.

2. It's not any kind of dust they currently understand, because that would show up in infrared. Also it wouldn't make sense to see a forming planet / exploding planet around a star this old.

3. It's not something much much closer to us blocking it periodically.

4. We're not sure if it's one thing, or many things, or what it's made out of, or if i understand correctly, if it has an observable period we could expect it to happen again. That last part is weird because orbits have regular periods.

5. We are right to be excited. Either answer -- phenomena we don't yet understand or actual literal superadvanced aliens building a type II dyson sphere or something -- are just mind boggingly exciting.

6. my money is on some sort of planetary break up / solar system collision with large fragments but not dust for some reason that we just haven't seen before.

 

[Version 3.0]

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.

Yes, and it's gonna be awesome when the spectrum analysis says "unknown material".

:^p

 

[sphinx]

Yes, and it's gonna be awesome when the spectrum analysis says "unknown material".

:^p

how long do we have to wait til we get results of any analysis??

 

[The Lone Courier]

This whole thing was just marketing for the new Alien movie.

 

[Rentahamster]

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. Dylan
2. Dylan
3. Dylan
4. Dylan
5. and Dylan

because he spits hot fire.

 

[Jme]

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.

Thanks for making the update easy to find

 

[CTLance]

Aw yeah. I love this thread.

My theory: The star is dimming because we are watching it. It's bashful about the size of its corona.
Alternative: The star eater is close to hatching.

Hope they manage to figure this out in my lifetime. Obviously, I also hope that it's something exciting. Can't deny that.

 

[LookAtMeGo]

What if its us from 1500 or whatever years in the future and we built that there but since we used FTL travel to get there we are just seeing it now some sort of side effects of relativity.. or something.

 

[Jason's Ultimatum]

Ok everyone needs to read this

1. If you're asking 'did they think of this?', yes they thought of that. And outside of [new phenomena we don't know yet] or [literally aliens], they -- multiple astrophysicists looking at the data -- ruled it out.

2. It's not any kind of dust they currently understand, because that would show up in infrared. Also it wouldn't make sense to see a forming planet / exploding planet around a star this old.

3. It's not something much much closer to us blocking it periodically.

4. We're not sure if it's one thing, or many things, or what it's made out of, or if i understand correctly, if it has an observable period we could expect it to happen again. That last part is weird because orbits have regular periods.

5. We are right to be excited. Either answer -- phenomena we don't yet understand or actual literal superadvanced aliens building a type II dyson sphere or something -- are just mind boggingly exciting.

6. my money is on some sort of planetary break up / solar system collision with large fragments but not dust for some reason that we just haven't seen before.

My money is on total protonic reversal. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

 

[johancruijff]

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 romper
a spinner
a vape pen

 

[Version 3.0]

how long do we have to wait til we get results of any analysis??

I'm hardly qualified to say, but spectral analysis is well established. I'd think it'd be pretty quick. Like days/weeks, not months.

I couldn't guess about all the other things they might be looking at, or the timelines for those. I'm sure they've come up with some clever ideas in anticipation of this live look, though.

 

[Version 3.0]

What if its us from 1500 or whatever years in the future and we built that there but since we used FTL travel to get there we are just seeing it now some sort of side effects of relativity.. or something.

Sorry, that doesn't follow, even in sci-fi terms. The light's from 1500 years in the past, not the future. If it's us, then we didn't just FTL travel. We time traveled to the past.

And besides, future humans would be cool and all, but what we really want is aliens.

 

[SomTervo]

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.

Thanks a million.

Was dreading going back post by post to find the update... A new thread would be great

 

[PantherLotus]

My money is on total protonic reversal. Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

that would show up as infra red!

 

[Mikado]

that would show up as infra red!

Maybe they don't show up on infra red at all?

 

[Rentahamster]

Sorry, that doesn't follow, even in sci-fi terms. The light's from 1500 years in the past, not the future. If it's us, then we didn't just FTL travel. We time traveled to the past.

And besides, future humans would be cool and all, but what we really want is aliens.

Actually, slightly modified, that sorta makes a cool story premise. Like, we see scientists observe alien life thousands of light years away, and we slowly observe them making a trip straight to us only to realize that it was actually ancient space faring humans coming to earth. Of course, then there's the problem of explaining why the fossil record looks like it does.

 

[Kreuzader]

this is really weird. from Columbia University astronomy professor David Kipping's twitter (https://twitter.com/david_kipping/status/866796945104359429):

Here's my back-of-the-envelope calculations for #TabbysStar assuming it's periodic at 750 days. Some interesting implications.

 

[Preezy]

Have the scientists checked that it's not a fly or a spider on the lens? That always happens.

 

[Master Yoshi]

this is really weird. from Columbia University astronomy professor David Kipping's twitter (https://twitter.com/david_kipping/status/866796945104359429):

In English?

 

[Preezy]

In English?

ALIENS

 

[TheSecondSpitter]

this is really weird. from Columbia University astronomy professor David Kipping's twitter (https://twitter.com/david_kipping/status/866796945104359429):

 

[Master Yoshi]

ALIENS

 

[Kreuzader]

In English?

A diffuse swarm of objects larger than a star with no infrared glow is... well, we've never seen anything like it.

 

[Gallbaro]

In English?

It is bigger than the star it orbits, but it weighs less than the star.

Spoiler

I think

 

[Samurai G0SU]

MAybe we are witnessing an ALIEN war and those flashes of lights are explosions!!!!

jk

 

[Tritroid]

Am I understanding right, or does Kipping's hypothesis make it sound like it's NOT a circular object? And more like something with outreached sections or 'arms'? More or less like a large space station?

 

[Turin Turambar]

In English?

Given the duration of the events, he says the object that is obstructing the star is actually larger than the star itself. Ie. large cloud. The fact there still light coming means it's a diffuse object, again like a large cloud.

 

[Dubbedinenglish]

Space locusts

 

[notaskwid]

this is really weird. from Columbia University astronomy professor David Kipping's twitter (https://twitter.com/david_kipping/status/866796945104359429):

Someone give the man a new font.

 

[Veritigo_X]

this is really weird. from Columbia University astronomy professor David Kipping's twitter (https://twitter.com/david_kipping/status/866796945104359429):

Web comics are weird these days. Can someone take out 2 of the panels to make this one funny?

 

[Preezy]

Given the duration of the events, he says the object that is obstructing the star is actually larger than the star itself. Ie. large cloud. The fact there still light coming means it's a diffuse object, again like a large cloud.

So some form of alien cloud technology?

We're getting close, people.

 

[Spaced Harrier]

It's super advanced giant cosmic aliens playing with a Type II Dyson fidget spinner.

 

[Kreuzader]

Am I understanding right, or does Kipping's hypothesis make it sound like it's NOT a circular object? And more like something with outreached sections or 'arms'? More or less like a large space station?

the pattern of the dips isn't like that of a circular occulter, but more like something a complex swarm would produce - but each dip has looked different and blocked the star to different degrees (up to 20%!); so it's really hard to say what the structure could be.

 

[Tathanen]

Given the duration of the events, he says the object that is obstructing the star is actually larger than the star itself. Ie. large cloud. The fact there still light coming means it's a diffuse object, again like a large cloud.

 

[dinoroar]

Has the resurgence of this thread come out of the recent Horizon documentary on "Strange Signals From Space" that was on the BBC?

If not, everyone in the thread should watch it! don't think there's more info on this, but it's a good doc.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I bet after the spectrum analysis and further study or whatever it will get even weirder and more mind boggling.

Has the resurgence of this thread come out of the recent Horizon documentary on "Strange Signals From Space" that was on the BBC?

If not, everyone in the thread should watch it! don't think there's more info on this, but it's a good doc.

No, its in the news again because it's dimming right now.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/20/...abbys-star-alien-megastructures-light-dimming

 

[Generalpsyduck]

ALIENS

Yay?

 

[Fenderputty]

Anyone know how long the dips and analysis takes? That size Image on the previous page is wild if true

 

[doop_]

It is galactus

 

[Hari Seldon]

So I just started reading about this. I read that it dipped 20%. Did it stay that way or return to normal?

 

[Mr. Poolman]

So I just started reading about this. I read that it dipped 20%. Did it stay that way or return to normal?

It returns to its regular light on a not defined pattern.
So basically, we don't know what causes it or even how.

So yeah, it must be aliens.
GAF is going trough a fund recollection so we can send a rocket and watch, but it would take +-2000 years to arrive there at lightspeed.

 

[boneyjangles]

Can't we just let this one thing be Aliens? I mean if they are 1000 light years away it's never going to be something we can communicate or interact with, but still nice to know!