A team of 200 researchers has released the results of an investigation aimed at discovering whether an ‘alien megastructure’ is orbiting a distant star.
Sadly, it looks like the distinctive ‘winking’ of a sun that’s 1,000 light years away is caused by dust, rather than a massive piece of extraterrestrial technology.
A star called KIC 8462852, or ‘Tabby’s Star’, attracted the attention of astronomers because of a strange phenomenon which saw the light it produces ‘inexplicably dimming and brightening sporadically like no other’.
This led one stargazer to suggest the blinking was caused by the presence of a Dyson Sphere – a theoretical Death Star-style power station which surrounds a sun and harvests all its energy.
Now the scientist who made this suggestion has unveiled data about ‘the most mysterious star in the universe’ from a probe funded using $100,000 raised in a Kickstarter campaign.
Jason Wright, an astrophysics assistant professor at Penn State Department of Astronomy, said: ‘We were hoping that once we finally caught a dip happening in real time we could see if the dips were the same depth at all wavelengths.
‘If they were nearly the same, this would suggest that the cause was something opaque, like an orbiting disk, planet, or star, or even large structures in space.
‘This latest research rules out alien megastructures, but it raises the plausibility of other phenomena being behind the dimming.’
It was previously suggested the dimming was caused by a planet or even a swarm of comets.
Louisiana State University’s Tabetha Boyajian added: ‘Dust is most likely the reason why the star’s light appears to dim and brighten.
‘The new data shows that different colours of light are being blocked at different intensities.
‘Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure.’
MORE: Did an alien probe enter our solar system?
A team of 200 researchers has released the results of an investigation aimed at discovering whether an ‘alien megastructure’ is orbiting a distant star.
Sadly, it looks like the distinctive ‘winking’ of a sun that’s 1,000 light years away is caused by dust, rather than a massive piece of extraterrestrial technology.
A star called KIC 8462852, or ‘Tabby’s Star’, attracted the attention of astronomers because of a strange phenomenon which saw the light it produces ‘inexplicably dimming and brightening sporadically like no other’.
This led one stargazer to suggest the blinking was caused by the presence of a Dyson Sphere – a theoretical Death Star-style power station which surrounds a sun and harvests all its energy.
Now the scientist who made this suggestion has unveiled data about ‘the most mysterious star in the universe’ from a probe funded using $100,000 raised in a Kickstarter campaign.
Jason Wright, an astrophysics assistant professor at Penn State Department of Astronomy, said: ‘We were hoping that once we finally caught a dip happening in real time we could see if the dips were the same depth at all wavelengths.
‘If they were nearly the same, this would suggest that the cause was something opaque, like an orbiting disk, planet, or star, or even large structures in space.
‘This latest research rules out alien megastructures, but it raises the plausibility of other phenomena being behind the dimming.’
It was previously suggested the dimming was caused by a planet or even a swarm of comets.
Louisiana State University’s Tabetha Boyajian added: ‘Dust is most likely the reason why the star’s light appears to dim and brighten.
‘The new data shows that different colours of light are being blocked at different intensities.
‘Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure.’
