'Alien Megastructure' Star Is at It Again with the Strange Dimming

a reply to: Kandinsky

Well, here's the thing about periodicity: the further out any thing is, the longer it takes to orbit around the parent object (in this case, the star).

There could be a lot of much smaller objects, that really do not cause enough dimming to be detected easily with our current tech now. However, there could be much larger, unfinished or scattered about things much, much further out.

Uranus orbital period is 84 years. Neptune is at 165 years. We don't have enough data for this star for that long (or longer).

I would be hesitant to discount artificial structures based on only that. If scattered enough, and orbiting far enough out, it could take a much longer period of time to see any kind of regular periodicity.

What if it's not dimming, but a form of communication, such as Morse code?

I was just having a think, is the dimming on the star itself or something in space between us and the star?

Maybe it could be that a large object (planet, moon or something along those lines) was on a collision course but kind of landed/merged and is now like an iceberg bobbing up and down irratically with the tidal forces of gravity of another star or nearby object?

Fingers crossed it'll be one of the first things to be looked at by The James Webb Space Telescope.

What if this start is trying to turn into a Black Hole!
it is stuttering. if it just dispersers, goes black.
then you know it did!

a reply to: Kandinsky



I thought about this today; has anyone ever considered that this ( the light curves) might be some kind of coded information? Maybe the pulses form some kind of pattern that is informational. Sort of like some kind of grandiose cosmic smoke signals. Lol, if it does however, its probably too complex for our little primate brains to comprehend, so it doesn't matter.

a reply to: Tempter



I didn't see your post, but YES. They were looking for signals in radio frequencies, but maybe the star itself it being used to send a signal, which is going out in all directions as the "structures" orbit around it blocking its light. Assuming of course its not some natural phenomena.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: verschickter

In the last instance, yes, it turned out to be a comet swarm.

www.iflscience.com...

That's why I'm sceptical about the alien thing.

The story in the link relates to the same star as in the OP. Initially some scientists thought it was a comet swarm, however this theory has since been ruled out. So what you're saying is completey wrong, it didn't turn out to be a comet swarm and nor has anyone else figured out what it is yet.

Try to keep up before you come out dismissing everything as fact.

Tabby's star could "possibly" be an alien mega structure, I.e. a Dyson sphere. Or it could just as well (most probably) something we totally don't understand.
The universe is stranger then we could even begin to comprehend. It could be reacting to some strange for of matter/anti matter or force of nature we have yet to know about.
I want to believe so much that it is some form intelligent species, would be awesome. But the rational side of me says otherwise, but I hope I'm wrong.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Perhaps we are watching the beginning interaction of a star system and a newly captured , small magnetar.

The aliens are just playing games with the dumb dumb earthling scientists who think they know something about the universe yet change their theories every week.

a reply to: Kandinsky

Why don't we ask our false friends and alies the grays, what that is

Hell they'll probably claim it's their structure

Lying bastards

a reply to: openminded2011

It'd be a mind-blower if something like that was happening. Beautiful. It's unlikely though because a civilisation would have to be a reckless bunch to be shouting at the Cosmos and setting off signal-flares. Not saying there's an evil Empire out there, but it'd be the quickest way to find out.

a reply to: eriktheawful

You know what? I likely am discounting artificial structures and shouldn't do. Until we know otherwise, it's something to consider.

There's a little chitter chatter on Twitter about a *potential* 750 day periodicity which *might* then suggest circumstellar materials (sorta like accretion disc debris).

I don't know where the 750 day figure came from. Nothing I've read identified a period like that despite there being over a century of data to find one in.

There's a good article by astrophysicist Ángel R. López-Sánchez that explains how and who caught the 'The Dimming' this time around. It's one of those detailed articles that really adds a lot of insights.

Many media, including Sky and Telescope, New Scientist and Popular Science, have included the news in the last few hours, that is also running wild in social media. But none of these are saying that the actual alert comes from the observations lead by Marian Martínez (IAC) and “Coffee Breakers” at the 1.2m Mercator Telescope at the beginning of the week! I really think this is not fair, and proper credit to the team that actually triggered the alert at the beginning of the week must be given.

Link again.

originally posted by: Tempter
What if it's not dimming, but a form of communication, such as Morse code?

thats what i am inclined to

Maybe its getting dimmed by some very cold planetary bodies who are attracted to it and fall to it thus taking some of the heat for a period of time. Not comet swarms but some objects swallowen by the star?.. This event is so weird.

originally posted by: swanne
a reply to: Kandinsky

Hm. I still dnt think it's alien just because it doesn't fit our models. As far as we know, it could be some interaction with dark matter affecting nuclear fusion in the star itself, through the W force or something.

In any instances, SETI has already checked for communication signals there, and found none.

What models LOL. The small minded approach that masquerades as open genius minded prevalent in certain sectors of science...boring.

I read one or two reply's saying it cant be aliens because it does not fit our Models .
One question Did anyone tell the alien what model to go by ?
They should be the first told so that way when it is them they can do it according to our models lol .
( Human ) Cant be alien because the model i made says it cant .
Alien watching through cloaking device ????????????
Intelligence ? Naaa cant be .

I see other reply about how they wish it was aliens but its just probly some thing in the universe we havent found or understand yet . ( well now if it is a total new thing that would be just a great discovery as if it had been aliens .
Wile science cant say they know every thing we have a good darn idea how things work and its when its not something we can fit anyware then it really deserves our attation

Here's my theory. It's not a massive planet or a massive alien mega structure. It is something very small (that we cannot observe) between Kepler and the star that is causing the dimming.

There is a large street light at the end of my road which is 200 meters long. The street light is rather large. If I extend my hand and use just my index finger to block the light coming directly into my eyes I can effectively dim the light by more than half.

And this is just the tip of my index finger. However, if I were located right next to the large light I would need to have a very large object to obtain the same amount of light obstruction I observed 200 meters away.

What make more sense? Some massive mega structure or another object between Kepler and the star we simply cannot see?

a reply to: Outlier13

The problem with that idea is: it would then block out other star light.....which it has not.

If it were something (actually, since this dimming has happened more than once, it would have to be more than one thing) passing somewhere between us and Tabby's star, it means it's moving....which means as it tracks across the sky, it would appear to do the same thing to other stars within our view, stars that appear close to Tabby's star in our apparent view.

Going back and looking through decades of observations of that area of the sky would reveal other stars also dimming, giving the objects a track across the sky. Since they've found nothing like that, it must be something local to the star's system itself.

So not a bad idea, but the evidence so far doesn't support that.

This is a great OP--we're getting to witness a truly baffling astronomical event in real time, and nobody really knows what the hell is going on. I've read at least a couple of confused posts, so I would recommend the OP's youtube video as a way to "catch up" on what Tabby's star is all about.

Tabby herself did a Q&A today about the new data coming in. Well worth the watch: