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Star exhibits strange light patterns which could be a sign of alien activity

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Triggerhappytel

Member
Mr. Poolman said:
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.
Click to expand...

The idea that it's 2000 light years away just hurts my brain. The scales just feel like they're beyond ordinary comprehension.
 
O

OraleeWey

Member
I watched a video about this. They now at least have an idea and a prediction (for the future, will take some years). It could be asteroids orbiting star of various sizes. If prediction is true, case closed.
 
S

Shy

Member
OraleeWey said:
I watched a video about this. They now at least have an idea and a prediction (for the future, will take some years). It could be asteroids orbiting star of various sizes. If prediction is true, case closed.
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oZfH1IX.gif
 
J

Jedi2016

Member
OraleeWey said:
I watched a video about this. They now at least have an idea and a prediction (for the future, will take some years). It could be asteroids orbiting star of various sizes. If prediction is true, case closed.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that they've discounted asteroids or planets because no conceivable number of normal astronomical bodies could possibly account for the amount of dimming we're seeing. Stacking up all of the planets in our system at once would only dim the Sun by about 2%. Tabby's Star is dipping by over 20%. Sure, you could argue that it's simply a shitton of ungodly huge planets, but the star's movement doesn't indicate the presence of any large mass around it.

Is it aliens? No. It'll end up being something natural, but simply something we've never seen before, or even theorized before. It's outside of our experience, but given our infinitesimal experience of how the universe works, that's not really saying much.

Unfortunately, short of going there, there's not much more we can do right now except analyze the light patterns. I'm sure the James Webb telescope will take a look at some point, but I don't expect it to see much.
 
E

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-milky-most-mysterious-star-confound.html

In 2015, a star called KIC 8462852 caused quite a stir in and beyond the astronomy community due to a series of rapid, unexplained dimming events seen while it was being monitored by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope. And the star has continued to foil scientists' efforts to understand it ever since.

The latest findings from Carnegie's Josh Simon and Benjamin Shappee and collaborators take a longer look at the star, going back to 2006—before its strange behavior was detected by Kepler. Astronomers had thought that the star was only getting fainter with time, but the new study shows that it also brightened significantly in 2007 and 2014. These unexpected episodes complicate or rule out nearly all the proposed ideas to explain the star's observed strangeness.


Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-10-milky-most-mysterious-star-confound.html#jCp
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E

Earthbound64

Banned
Ether_Snake said:
https://phys.org/news/2017-10-milky-most-mysterious-star-confound.html

The latest findings from Carnegie's Josh Simon and Benjamin Shappee and collaborators take a longer look at the star, going back to 2006—before its strange behavior was detected by Kepler. Astronomers had thought that the star was only getting fainter with time, but the new study shows that it also brightened significantly in 2007 and 2014.
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Not to insult the intelligence of astronomers, but... if you had data on the star going back to 2006, why did it take you 2 years to think to look back at it? I mean, I assume the data didn't just magically appear out of nowhere and hadn't been available before or something (unless it had, in which case that would explain it. But assuming otherwise).


Boem said:
We gotta find out a way to block 20% of our sun
Click to expand...

Humanity: "Hold my beer."
 
N

Not

Banned
Boem said:
We gotta find out a way to block 20% of our sun so we can start sending back some messages to those guys.
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How long would it take to reach them though

I guess the speed of light is technically the fastest we'll ever be able to communicate
 
L

Lace

Member
Boem said:
We gotta find out a way to block 20% of our sun so we can start sending back some messages to those guys.
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The blocking of that Sun occurred over 2000 years ago. If we somehow figured out a way to send them any message it would take an additional 2000 years to reach them. In total a 4,000 year turnaround. Lets hope neither species accidentally wipes themselves out in between.
 
A

Afrikan

Member
people, I'd love to see Aliens in my lifetime...

but at the same time... my life is, I guess, ok right now nothing exciting.... maybe we should be careful what we ask for.
 
Subpar Spatula

Subpar Spatula

Banned
a star that's faint, with our shoddy tech.

new telescope goes up soon. gonna get a better read.

y'all gonna hate when they say, "it's a flow of space dust that's is filtered through a dense asteroid belt causing the unknown fluctuations".
 
U

Unai

Member
Subpar Spatula said:
a star that's faint, with our shoddy tech.

new telescope goes up soon. gonna get a better read.

y'all gonna hate when they say, "it's a flow of space dust that's is filtered through a dense asteroid belt causing the unknown fluctuations".
Click to expand...

Space dust was one of the first discarded theories, though.
 
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