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Second Irregularly Dimming Star Found (phys.org)
Long-time Slashdot reader RockDoctor writes: Remember the screaming and welcoming of our Dyson-Sphere-Dwelling 1500 LY distant Overlords that accompanied the news that star KIC 8462852 was irregularly dimming on both short and longer timescales? A second star with a similar light curve has been discovered and reported on ARXIV.
With the euphonious names "EPIC 204278916" and "2MASS J16020757-2257467", the star is a young M1 (red) star, traveling as part of a group of stars which haven't had time to disperse from their place of formation. The age is estimated at 5 — 11 million years. Analysis of 70+ days of data from the K2 mission epoch shows a rotation of 3.6 days, but a period of 25 days near the start of the observation epoch showed dips in intensity of up to 60% lasting for up to about a day each. Details are in the Arxiv paper linked to above, particularly figures 1 and 4.
If confirmed, this discovery changes the situation with interpreting the so-called "Tabby's Star". Firstly with a second object in the class, the odds of it representing a class of naturally occurring objects compared to a unique, unusual object is greatly increased. Secondly, the different celestial mechanical situations around the different stars allows a better estimate of plausible formation mechanisms. One potentially important point is that clumps of debris that could produce these dimmings seem to be quite large. "It is also important to note that the resulting size for the transiting and occulting clump would be quite large at with the clump being in the order of 1.5 times the radius of the Sun. Sadly, this appears to be a new class of "dirty young planetary system." no alien Overlords, no screaming in the streets. Just business-like astronomy.
With the euphonious names "EPIC 204278916" and "2MASS J16020757-2257467", the star is a young M1 (red) star, traveling as part of a group of stars which haven't had time to disperse from their place of formation. The age is estimated at 5 — 11 million years. Analysis of 70+ days of data from the K2 mission epoch shows a rotation of 3.6 days, but a period of 25 days near the start of the observation epoch showed dips in intensity of up to 60% lasting for up to about a day each. Details are in the Arxiv paper linked to above, particularly figures 1 and 4.
If confirmed, this discovery changes the situation with interpreting the so-called "Tabby's Star". Firstly with a second object in the class, the odds of it representing a class of naturally occurring objects compared to a unique, unusual object is greatly increased. Secondly, the different celestial mechanical situations around the different stars allows a better estimate of plausible formation mechanisms. One potentially important point is that clumps of debris that could produce these dimmings seem to be quite large. "It is also important to note that the resulting size for the transiting and occulting clump would be quite large at with the clump being in the order of 1.5 times the radius of the Sun. Sadly, this appears to be a new class of "dirty young planetary system." no alien Overlords, no screaming in the streets. Just business-like astronomy.
Or...now follow me on this...maybe there are *two* Kardashev-II civilizations out there?
I mean, I know the odds of there being exactly one such civilization in the entire visible universe are pretty overwhelming (remember how shocked explorers were when they found a *second* multicontinent?), but still, it just might be possible.
cataegory 3 civilizations and we had better watch our "P"'s and "Q"'s.... Just sayin'
It's a Dyson. It shines in a shop window. It dims when you start using it.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
If you are an advanced alien race that needs more living space, it's much more practical to construct a partial dyson sphere in your own back yard, than to colonize other star systems. Our galaxy is big enough that there should be multiple inhabited star systems out there, and possibly multiple partial dyson spheres. But the laws of physics make visits from flesh and blood aliens highly unlikely.
I have written a truly remarkable program which this sig is too small to contain.
"
If confirmed, this discovery changes the situation with interpreting the so-called "Tabby's Star"."
The most important reason why this deprecates Tabby's Star as an alien megastructure is that at 5-11 million years, this new star is far too young to have undergone planet formation, let alone a highly developed civilization. If we can identify a natural mechanism for its odd light changes, Occam says this is the most likely explanation for Tabby's Star also.
Meanwhile, we ourselves are making these observations as a Kardashian Type I civilization, which means that we are too focused on the antics of celebrities to have a real space program. Fortunately, private sector initiatives like the Allen Telescope Array may get us the definitive data first.
... Someone opened their beer on the big red button. Now the whole place went supercritical and started making stars. Oh, the universe, only if these hip guys cares to read the safety instruction...
There is a lot of debris in orbit around various stars in the infinite possibilities that comprise the multitude of galaxies that make up what we can see.
Those who wish to see aliens will see them no matter what.
This star is different, it has a disk.
Rats, you guessed my password!
Table-ized A.I.
So this article is not about Britney Spears?
By the mere fact that we have noticed this twice now (and we've looked at very few stars) would suggest this is not terribly uncommon. Even if it's one in a million, there are thousands in just our own galaxy.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
They are two different things. The young star system would have a lot of debris in it and the star itself would be still unstable. So it is reasonable for its light output to vary. The other star was old.
What evidence do you have that you can travel faster than the speed of light? If you have evidence of it, then produce it. Einstein said it isn't possible. Do you know better? Welcome to reality. Reality isn't Star Trek.
Absolutely none, and it is not possible according to current models.
However, maybe those models are incomplete. For example, maybe the universe is a simulation and someone exists outside of it capable of mucking about with it. Or perhaps we will discover how to create a buffer overflow.
Real lawyers write in C++
We have known for quite some time that young stars can behave this way. The reason Tabby is odd is because it DOESN’T appear to be young. I doubt the same mechanism will explain both unless Tabby’s age is radically down graded. I suppose that could happen, but the reason I believe it won’t is the highly symmetric first dip and the another dip indicating a huge ring structure object, then came the wacky random fluctuations that without the other two anomalies would like a young planetary forming nebula. On September 14th, GAIA will release its first trove of data on star distances and motion. Likely this data will give us a much better idea about what Tabby’s star is. Still only if and when another occlusion occurs we will really be able to draw some real conclusions.
Letter To Iran
It's a bit of trial and error when you're firing up this sort of thing. Stars/suns take a lot of engineering and none of it is handed down.
I do hope you're under 6 years of age.
I for one sadly say goodbye to our Dyson Sphere building overlords...
10^28 Kg of ex-lax should straighten out any stellar irregularities...
On a scale of a galaxy a civilisation growing up around a star is a pretty natural thing, you could even argue that a civilisation is part of a natural cycle of the start. So it is also natural when that civilisation will build a dyson sphere around one.
Actually about 100 years ago, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was working out and publishing the theory of how humans would eventually use rockets to reach the Moon, and other places in space:
I just discovered our world is full of nuts. Eureka our world must be a scrotum.
Twinkle, twinkle little star...
wat die donner maak jy daar...
There is nothing new under the sun^Wstar it seems.
The Thought Police will be using tickle-sticks along with the nerve gas and whips?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
I believe that the dimming is more likely cause by dark matter rather than a Dyson Sphere.
Wouldn't a Dyson sphere require a vastly considerable amount of resource material?
I wonder if there is not enough material in all 8 known planets plus asteroid belt to construct a Dyson sphere around our own star.
Not to mention the inconceivable amount of other resources needed to process and construct the thing; like workers and manufacturing facilities.
My money would be on a more naturally occurring phenomena. Perhaps a dark object(s) occluding view, or an as-yet unknown type of core reaction.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.