Intriguing New Development on Tabby's Star (KIC 8462852)

Tabby's Star, much discussed because of its mysterious periodic dimming, has a new oddity to show us. The observation records for this star, for the years 1890 to 1989 were gone over carefully. It was found that the star dimmed, in these 99 years, by a substantial 16 percent.
This sort of dimming is unprecedented in an F star, on the main sequence, as Tabby's Star is held to be.
Suppose we follow the favorite explanation for the dimming of this star, disrupted comets blocking its light. There would have to be an immense amount of dust over the course of a century. It would amount to the equivalent of about 648,000 giant comets, each crossing in front of the star, and each 200 kilometers (120 miles) in diameter. This would have to extend to our current observations, even though we see no signs of such dust.
Alternatively, we could be looking at a Dyson sphere, as it is being built, with 16 percent more light collected, and so blocked from our view, in the course of a century. Given the distance of this star, this would all really have been happening about 1500 years ago.

link, below to a paper on this:

arxiv.org...

a reply to: Ross 54

This was the star they thought there was a "megastructure" around I believe..

It's cool to know we have experts still sifting through data from decades ago, and actually finding helpful clues in it.

I wonder what we may learn from this data. Very cool share - thanks for posting OP.

Ah, here's what I was talking about:

"Within the context of the comet-family idea, the century-long dimming trend requires an estimated 648,000 giant comets (each with 200 km diameter) all orchestrated to pass in front of the star within the last century."

That would be an average of around 17 giant comments passing in front of it daily. How likely is that?

a reply to: Ross 54

While I like the idea of a Dyson sphere I think a Dyson swarm would make more sense in terms of harnessing your parent star , I'm not sure the dimming of this star hints at that but it's exactly what we should be looking for.

Im coming back to this, but thanks
S&F

See you soon

a reply to: gortex

I think any Dyson Sphere is going to start out as a Dyson Swarm, expanded as the civilization's energy needs increase, until eventually the entire output of the star is harnessed.

originally posted by: SpongeBeard
a reply to: gortex

I think any Dyson Sphere is going to start out as a Dyson Swarm, expanded as the civilization's energy needs increase, until eventually the entire output of the star is harnessed.

No, a Dyson Sphere would be dynamically impossible. A megastructure on that scale would need to be a very narrow ring or a swarm of independent, self contained bodies.

I hope someday they can get better visual images of this star so they can find out what's really going on over there.

originally posted by: DJW001
No, a Dyson Sphere would be dynamically impossible. A megastructure on that scale would need to be a very narrow ring or a swarm of independent, self contained bodies.

The Ringworld is unstable.

What would be telling is that amount of dimming increasing over time. It could mean something being built that is covering up more and more of the star's light.

That would be really suggestive.

The whole: "We listed to it with radio receivers and didn't detect anything, there for it's natural" thing doesn't sit well with me.

It could easily be that there is someone there but they use a different form of communication that we can't detect, or moved on from using the EM spectrum, and could have done it long ago, to where now, there is nothing to detect. All radio waves from them have come and gone.

Personally I think they should keep the door open on KIC 8462852

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: DJW001
No, a Dyson Sphere would be dynamically impossible. A megastructure on that scale would need to be a very narrow ring or a swarm of independent, self contained bodies.

The Ringworld is unstable.

Not to worry, Louis Wu, Bussard ramjets will fix it.

originally posted by: pteridine

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: DJW001
No, a Dyson Sphere would be dynamically impossible. A megastructure on that scale would need to be a very narrow ring or a swarm of independent, self contained bodies.

The Ringworld is unstable.

Not to worry, Louis Wu, Bussard ramjets will fix it.

Until you remove too many of them.

originally posted by: ItCameFromOuterSpace
"Within the context of the comet-family idea, the century-long dimming trend requires an estimated 648,000 giant comets (each with 200 km diameter) all orchestrated to pass in front of the star within the last century."

That would be an average of around 17 giant comments passing in front of it daily. How likely is that?

How about a collision of planets and a debris cloud slowly developing into an asteroid belt?

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: pteridine

originally posted by: Bedlam

originally posted by: DJW001
No, a Dyson Sphere would be dynamically impossible. A megastructure on that scale would need to be a very narrow ring or a swarm of independent, self contained bodies.

The Ringworld is unstable.

Not to worry, Louis Wu, Bussard ramjets will fix it.

Until you remove too many of them.

The inspirational Hot Needle of Inquiry will find the culprit.

Maybe the star had something unusual occur. Like ingesting a black hole.

originally posted by: Bedlam
Maybe the star had something unusual occur. Like ingesting a black hole.

Actually, the black hole would be ingesting the star. In this event, wouldn't there be an net emission of radiation as the star was eaten? Could the star be running out of mass?

How about a collision of planets and a debris cloud slowly developing into an asteroid belt?

This was considered, but it was realized that the destruction of a planet would leave a great deal of dust behind. Such dust has been looked for repeatedly in this system. It was not found

originally posted by: eriktheawful
What would be telling is that amount of dimming increasing over time. It could mean something being built that is covering up more and more of the star's light.

That would be really suggestive.

A gradual dimming of this star, over time, is what the chart in the linked paper seems to show. 16 of 18 data points lie along a steadily declining track of brightness, from 1890 to 1989. And , yes, I agree, this is highly suggestive.

Could it not be a blackhole passing through somewhere in the distance between us and the star ?

Or perhaps the star underwent some process in its life cycle we are yet to witness (apart from this instance) or have any knowledge of yet ?

originally posted by: Ross 54

How about a collision of planets and a debris cloud slowly developing into an asteroid belt?

This was considered, but it was realized that the destruction of a planet would leave a great deal of dust behind. Such dust has been looked for repeatedly in this system. It was not found

If you assume that not finding it so far means that it isn't there and that there is not a massive planet occluding the light, there is also the possibility of interference somewhere further from the star between us and them. While solar system engineering is a possibility, it is pretty far down on the list.