Kepler's 'Alien Megastructure' Star Just Got Weirder

Anyone else has some ideas?

I believe that Aliens are trying to build a Dyson Sphere around the Tabby Star..

Taking speculation to an extreme, I wonder if anyone's done some back-of-the-envelope calculations about the rate of hypothetical construction that might have gone on.

Might give a ballpark guess as to what sort of power this possible ET civ is playing around with. Plenty of room for error, of course, given that there would probably be technologies involved that we can't guess at, but if they could move x-number of billions of tons of mass in a thousand days, we might be able to extrapolate more data regarding power consumption, infrastructure (for mining/processing the requisite amount of material) and maybe even just how far they seem to be able to travel.

a reply to: Unresponsible

I don't know if it would be possible to calculate a construction project manager hivemind with self replicating robot workers.
Let alone if they can use warp gates and the energy cost of warp gates.

Wow..this star didn't "dim" by only 3%..

"In addition to the day-long dimmings, a study of a century's worth of photographic plates suggest the star has gradually faded from 1890 to 1989 by about 20%, which would be unprecedented for any F-type main sequence star."

Source: en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: rabbidsquriel
a reply to: ArMaP

hello all
"warped" space produces lensing could this in a way in part or whole explain the randomness of the dimming
just wondering if i am totally off the mark please tell me

This is a good question.

The answer would be:

Is the any object nearby that could produce lensing that would warp light to such a degree?

Thus far gravitational lensing has been observed around extremely large objects like galaxies or galaxy clusters.

lensing effects are actually pretty well observed and there are many images online of lensing effects that have been observed over the years. All of them produced by galaxies or clusters thereof.

If there is something in that area with enough mass to produce that kind of lensing we would know.

I prefer the idea that it's a weakening or dying star.

Or that at least something about it's composition is causing disruptions with it's fusion process.

I honestly think the Dyson Sphere suggestions are ludicrous. There is way more hype around this than is warranted.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
..that at least something about it's composition is causing disruptions with it's fusion process..

that it is, heavy element rain

a reply to: Puppylove
Yes it's called dark matter .. at least that's one of my thoughts .

Seems like if a race has been doing stuff like this for a long time and have done it tomost of the known universe then it could explain alot

Anyone ever consider this: 'Ringworld' by Larry Niven - 1970

Funny how some sci-fi seems to intuit the future.

originally posted by: Puppylove
a reply to: woogleuk

A Dyson Sphere would be built over time, not be an instantaneous construct. As such, the reason Dyson Sphere fits as an answer to what's going on is the way the dimming is happening over time and continuing to grow in strength.

The theory is the the Dyson Sphere is in the process of being built, and not yet complete.

well, to put it in perspective, if over a couple of ywars it dimmed 3%, it would have been done millions to billions of years ago, depending on how far away the star is. We would just now be seeing it.

originally posted by: muzzleflash
I prefer the idea that it's a weakening or dying star.

Or that at least something about it's composition is causing disruptions with it's fusion process.

I honestly think the Dyson Sphere suggestions are ludicrous. There is way more hype around this than is warranted.

Don't you think the experts studying this have thougjt of this? If they are scratching their heads, I feel safe saying such an obvious solution has been ruled out or ruled to be very unlikely. But I honestly have no idea.

a reply to: dr1234

Tabby's star is only about 1400 ly from us so really what we are seeing is happening in the year 600

Double

Dyson himself thought the theory was ridiculous, in part due to the insane amount of raw materials necessary to build such a mega-device, which would also require ultra-advanced technology capable of maintaining the correct temperature to support life.

Go to the Wikipedia page on the subject. The math has been done and even rough estimates say that our solar system contains only about 1/100th of the material necessary to construct a full Dyson Sphere (ignoring the many other problems with such a construct - drift of the sphere with the star, no known material strong enough to withstand the compressive forces, etc). Basically, constructing a full sphere would require harvesting about 100 solar systems, hauling all that material back to a single star, creating materials unlike anything we know of and marshaling a construction force beyond imagining... The heat signature of the harvesting, hauling and construction would dwarf any star (and hence be easily detectable).

A Dyson Sphere is great science fiction and nothing more. Wouldn't it be more feasible for an alien civilization to find another habitable world instead of building an unbelievably large structure around a star? Seems like it would be easier to pack up and move instead of harvesting and manufacturing all the material needed to construct something of this magnitude.




venturebeat.com...
science.slashdot.org...

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Hmmm a mass evacuation of a planet, in order to move to another.

If we apply that theory to our own and our own families. I just don't think it would work. The elderly, the young etc etc , we're not just going to leave them to die but also they might suffer greatly from the rigors of space travel. No, I think it would be better to fix the world you knew and loved. Free power, zero polution.....it's a start huh?

a reply to: CaptainBeno
Packing up and moving does not necessarily mean off planet.

Move the planet to greener pastures and safer environs. See "Fleet of Worlds."

Isn't this type of unexplained dimming exactly what we should be looking for when looking for artificial life? Of course it is too early to conclude that it is. I am hoping the Webb telescope can tell us for sure. But, this is a star worth studying. Dyson spheres never made a lot of sense to me. But, an artificial world that is not a sphere after a species fully inhabits its planets makes sense. What if interstellar travel is not possible? Then what when a planet runs out of habitable space. If you can create that space artificially, wouldn't you do that. Even better if you can control how that artificial space moves around its star. You may get closer, move further away, turn sideways, front on if its not a sphere and create all kinds of different observations for a small planet 1400 light years away. All of those maneuvers may be possible and create these effects.

Alternatively, it could just be a really unstable star and we should hope that if it explodes it doesn't explode in our direction....

a reply to: dougie6665
Artificial life? You mean like cyborgs or clones or something? I'm not sure why a dimming star would indicate artificial life.

There isn't really any sign of it exploding and since it is not large enough to supernova, at its distance even if it did "explode" it wouldn't really have much of an effect on us.


Whatever is going on with this star, it's got astrophysicists scratching their heads and working overtime to figure it out. But I think they're on salary so don't get overtime. Unless they make under 40k, which they probably don't do.

originally posted by: dr1234

originally posted by: muzzleflash
I prefer the idea that it's a weakening or dying star.

Or that at least something about it's composition is causing disruptions with it's fusion process.

I honestly think the Dyson Sphere suggestions are ludicrous. There is way more hype around this than is warranted.

Don't you think the experts studying this have thougjt of this? If they are scratching their heads, I feel safe saying such an obvious solution has been ruled out or ruled to be very unlikely. But I honestly have no idea.

Nope, they somehow missed that possibility. Too bad they didn't have Muzzleflash on their research team, probably could have saved a boat load of time and money.

God damned scientists, think they are sooo smart. Well we showed them today. At least Muzzleflash showed them. I am just posting to say I was there the day that ATS trumped all those college egg heads with their telerscopes up their butt.