Kepler's 'Alien Megastructure' Star Just Got Weirder

Could it be a destroyed planet orbiting the star or an astroid field ring?

originally posted by: texasyeti
Could it be a destroyed planet orbiting the star or an astroid field ring?

Then the dimming would have been regular and predictable. The latest dimming last year of 3% needs a Jupiter sized planet to obscure our view of the star. And it has been constantly dimming for the last 100 years or so.

originally posted by: asen_y2k

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: asen_y2k


Why couldn't the slight (3%) dimming be caused by a thin space-dust cloud coming between Earth and Tabby? The space version of what happens on Earth when cirrus clouds "dim" the moon at night.

Because then it should go away after some time. Every time Tabby's star dimmed, it stayed that way, it never recovered. This dimming pattern is also not regular. And it has been constantly dimming for the last 100 years or so. It dims, stays that way, then dims further. Can be explained with construction activity in periodic phases. Moreover, no other star till date shows such activity.

Eh, wrong! This is space. I'm sure you're aware it's impossible to comprehend just how big it is.

With that in mind, it's entirely possible a giant cloud, or CLOUDS AT VARIOUS DEPTHS FROM TARGET, have a gradient density and therefore produce, at this current time, a seemingly constant dimming of the light.

You can never know this from one angle unless you measure for eternity. We need another angle at it to know for sure. For certain. ..

Can Kepler detect a Black hole and its potential non reflective debris, either coming in visual path between view points or even near the Tabby Star directly interacting with KIC 8462852, that may be obscuring the observations of KIC 8462852 activities 1480 yrs ago?

Is it possible for a black hole to orbit a star (this star)? and over time devour it?

Just brainstorming here.

a reply to: Tempter

It's unlikely to be 'clouds' because the phenomenon of changing luminosity is specific to Tabby's and doesn't happen to any other stars in our line of sight.

B. Lund et al looked for similar stars displaying comparable dips and changes in luminosity and they aren't there. They did find a few stars that have dimmed slightly over the past century, but none that behave like this one.

originally posted by: Ophiuchus 13
Can Kepler detect a Black hole and its potential non reflective debris, either coming in visual path between view points or even near the Tabby Star directly interacting with KIC 8462852, that may be obscuring the observations of KIC 8462852 activities 1480 yrs ago?

If there was a black hole we would know it causes a distortion of thr light not dimming. Thr reason they even speculated artificial was if thr light was dimming by something between us and it we would also see it wheN examining a spectrum. For example a particular gas would effect light at particular frequencies. We use this to tell for example the makeup of an atmosphere.

Now if it's artificial it wouldn't be a dysons sphere bottom line takes more material to build than thr star has energy. You would basically have to ship everything from anot her solar system to build it and that's not practical. What it could be however is something along thr lines of solar sails designed to capture solar energy. And they of course would have to move depending on the location of thr planet. That would seem random to a far flung observer that can't actually see what they do.

But again even this scenario pushes thr edge of beleavibilty. That's why everyone is confused my idea involves the sun itself I think something effects the ability for fusion to occur in the star. Maybe there is a huge rocky mass orbiting that periodically dumps stuff into the star. Or stranger still a galactic garbage dump my a huge interstellar race. Again last one is far fetched lol.

Thought of one more that would be great science fiction. An intergalactic parking garage the fluctuations we see is more and more ships coming into orbit as they build more and more .

monolith



Maybe? It did surround Jupiter to spark it up, by itself!

Who knows what that thing can do or what it's used for.

Imagine something like that in the wrong hands.

originally posted by: asen_y2kSo, everyone remembers Tabby's star, the wierd star, which was thought to have a Dyson sphere around it. Then, it was eventually dismissed by comet cloud theory. Well, now after a long term obsrvation (results above), we will have to rule out comets. No one is saying it out loud, but it looks more like 'Alien Megastructures'.

That's a bit of a stretch. Even the article you linked says, "That doesn't mean we have any more evidence for the alien megastructure hypothesis - the internet-backed idea that an advanced civilisation is building something giant, like a hypothetical Dyson sphere, around the star to harvest its energy.

But what it does suggest is that something's going on around the star that we've never seen anywhere in the cosmos before - most likely a combination of strange phenomena."

All the current data, much of which is still unreviewed is saying is that we don't yet know what's causing the observed effect.

This is a great discussion of a great topic -- I'm glad the provisions about forbidding disclosure of evidence of aliens have been suspended in this case.

a reply to: dragonridr
Thanks dragonridr for the response It's understood the black hole or its material would cause a distortion if not close, was more considering the black hole being close enough to actually be absorbing - draining the star, and the dimming being related to the star losing materials and or possibly having it's materials blocking observation view as the materials are processed over time...

a reply to: dragonridr

I have doubts concerning the "garbagedump"-theory.
There were no dips in infrared.

KIC 8462852 - The Infrared Flux
Massimo Marengo, Alan Hulsebus, Sarah Willis (Submitted on 24 Nov 2015)

We analyzed the warm Spitzer/IRAC data of KIC 8462852. We found no evidence of infrared excess at 3.6 micron and a small excess of 0.43 +/- 0.18 mJy at 4.5 micron, below the 3 sigma threshold necessary to claim a detection. The lack of strong infrared excess 2 years after the events responsible for the unusual light curve observed by Kepler, further disfavors the scenarios involving a catastrophic collision in a KIC 8462852 asteroid belt, a giant impact disrupting a planet in the system or a population of a dust-enshrouded planetesimals. The scenario invoking the fragmentation of a family of comets on a highly elliptical orbit is instead consistent with the lack of strong infrared excess found by our analysis.

Just remember, whatever is happening to that star actually happened 1,480 years ago. We are just seeing the results now.

originally posted by: Lassiecat
a reply to: asen_y2k

Maybe the star has some space illness, out of the box the stars didn't do that, I think the owner should try return it to coca cola company and reclaim his money back guarantee. Anyway it's not polite to sell broken stars anymore.

I agree. I just bought a star that was malfunctional and got severely burned. Although mine was Unilever brand, I think this is an under reported industry wide crises. I did not get a refund for my star from Unilever. They said they have a disclaimer that informs consumers that their stars are sold "as is." Is there such thing as consumer protection anymore? Any advice ATS?

Let me see if I've summed this up correctly:
It seems to not be a giant cloud of matter because that should show up via spectral analysis and also give off heat signatures in the infrared.
It seems to not be a black hole, because precedent of such situations show a cloud or disk of debris giving off x-rays as it is consumed by the black hole. Also we would see the effect of gravitational lensing. Also, a black hole would be a constant drain on the star's material.
It seems to not be a Dyson sphere or swarm due to the impracticality of the ROI in terms of energy recovery from construction.

So, purely from a speculative and hypothetical perspective, what if it's a different kind of device?
What if a civilization is advanced enough to create a device that acts like an energy vacuum - a gravitational field similar to a black hole, powerful enough to bend some of the light of the star toward it, but also controlled by the civilization that built it (turn off, turn on/collect or harvest the energy, etc). To be turned on when energy stores are low or when a project requires additional energy to complete.

originally posted by: burgerbuddy
a reply to: asen_y2k

Very interesting star.

So the whole star loses brightness? Dims independant from some kind of blockage?

I get that right?

Maybe it's a cosmic highway sign? Artificial maybe?

That actually got my wheels turning.

What if it is either a natural star that has been artificial modified or an artificial star..to serve as a beacon?

Like the light rotating in a light-house, but on a galactic scale.

Hopefully some scientists over at SETI are analyzing the light and rate of dimming etc. for any encoded mathematical messaging/meaning.

Other possibility...Massive artificial debris field from some long ago fought "Star-War".

Or some civilization whose planet became inhabitable thousands of years ago and they built structures at a safe orbit from their star.

originally posted by: PrairieShepherd
So, purely from a speculative and hypothetical perspective, what if it's a different kind of device?

Agreed...I would say when speculating about unknown structures at massive scale...Humility is a must. Humans have always believed they understand the basic rules of physics right up until we realize we don't. We should allow for the possibility of technology premised on science that we don't yet understand.

a reply to: Indigo5

Excellent point. I think many times our idea of what is possible is simply not big enough.

originally posted by: NeoSpace
Perhaps an artificial intelligence has taken over their solar system and built itself something like the replicators from StarGate.

something like ....V_GER !!!!!

V'ger
memory-alpha.wikia.com...'ger

or The Hologram Universe Programmers ( aka God GODS!! ) are playing around with that Star and its solar system

a reply to: Wolfenz

"Hey Kezlvlorp, watch me make these little ape-creatures freak out!"
turns down the Tabby's Star luminescence dial...