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The Alien Megastructure Around Mysterious 'Tabby's Star' Is Probably Just Dust, Analysis Shows (theguardian.com)
An analysis by more than 200 astronomers has been published that shows the mysterious dimming of star KIC 8462852 --
nicknamed Tabby's star -- is not being produced by an alien megastructure. "The evidence points most strongly to a giant cloud of dust occasionally obscuring the star," reports The Guardian. From the report: KIC 8462852 is approximately 1,500 light years away from the Earth and hit the headlines in October 2015 when data from Nasa's Kepler space telescope showed that it was dimming by unexplainably large amounts. The star's light dropped by 20% first and then 15% making it unique. Even a large planet passing in front of the star would have blocked only about 1% of the light. For an object to block 15-20%, it would have to be approaching half the diameter of the star itself. With this realization, a few astronomers began whispering that such a signal would be the kind expected from a gigantic extraterrestrial construction orbiting in front of the star -- and the idea of the alien megastructure was born.
In the case of Tabby's star, the new observations show that it dims more at blue wavelengths than red. Thus, its light is passing through a dust cloud, not being blocked by an alien megastructure in orbit around the star. The new analysis of KIC 8462852 showing these results is to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It reinforces the conclusions reached by Huan Meng, University of Arizona, Tucson, and collaborators in October 2017. They monitored the star at multiple wavelengths using Nasa's Spitzer and Swift missions, and the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory. These results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
In the case of Tabby's star, the new observations show that it dims more at blue wavelengths than red. Thus, its light is passing through a dust cloud, not being blocked by an alien megastructure in orbit around the star. The new analysis of KIC 8462852 showing these results is to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It reinforces the conclusions reached by Huan Meng, University of Arizona, Tucson, and collaborators in October 2017. They monitored the star at multiple wavelengths using Nasa's Spitzer and Swift missions, and the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory. These results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
... the alien megastructure was destroyed in an interplanetary war and now it's all debris! I want to believe!!!
So say we all
He released more black goo from the engineers.
Those bastards found a cheaper way to mine bitcoins!!!
where is this dust coming from? how does eating blue and shitting red prove that something is not a solar panel of some sort? who is stupid enough to believe that aliens would bother with a dyson sphere (impossible to stabilize, even if you have the unobtainium needed to build it), instead of a dyson swarm (cheap, cheerful, eminently scalable microsat swarm)?
We're so screwed. Aliens are so advanced they build megastructures of nanobots. We can't even tell them from dust until it's too late.
That's what happens to a planet if there is too much homosexual activity
I don't recall (other than some over zealous news sites) when it was probably aliens.
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already told us that.
Or maybe they really like the color blue? Perhaps we've found the home system of the Blue Man Group, where they have a blue house with a blue window. Blue is the color of all that they wear. Blue are the streets and all the trees are too. They have a girlfriend and she is so blue. Blue are the people there that walk around. Blue like their Corvette, it's in and outside. Blue are the words they say and what they think. Blue are the feelings that live inside them.
Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
That cloud looks like an ele-u-phunt to me!
We don't know that it's dust. We don't know that it's not an alien megastructure. All we know is that the absorption is not inconsistent with dust and that occam's razor suggests that the simplest explanation is generally the best. However, what we don't know about exosystems far exceeds what we do know. Which seems to mean that the simplest explanation (certainly the most prudent) is to say we don't yet know enough to make more than wild conjecture (and at this point even dust is wild conjecture).
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Is it dust, or could it be the remains of a shattered Dyson Sphere??
The alien mega-structure theory lives!!!
I've been saying that since the beginning of the debate. It's likely just a star with a ring around it like Saturn has.
That's what the creatures owning that structure want us to think. "Xarax, have you heard? Earthlings are investigating our power grid! We need to take action immediately! Activate dust camouflage, now!"
"The cloud was most possibly produced by the collision of two comets or the break-up of a single one."
To block out such a huge amount of the light I don't see this being likely with a comet. Not for a 15% dip in light. The comets would have to be quite very large.
:(
Another disappointment...
Well I for one welcome our new alien dust cloud overlords!
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If it had been real Trump would have ordered a biglier one
Sometimes, looking for the simplest answer forces you to make up some BS. Remember when UFOs were "swamp gas"?
You are welcome on my lawn.
this dust cloud comes from and how is it maintaining its form. And why don't we see similar dust clouds else where. BTW, a dust cloud can also be an alien megastructure.
We have enough firepower to do that to this planet all by ourselves.
Really, are you sure about that? If we detonated every nuke at the same time in the same place we'd probably all die but the planet itself would be pretty much fine.
We do not have enough nukes on this planet to crack the crust, destroy the planet's integrity, and literally crack the planet apart. Much less blast enormous quarter-planet sized chunks into space and escape the gravity of the planet. Yes we can kill all humans (at least those above ground) with our nukes - maybe just 1000 or less, but the entire world's arsenal will just scour the top level of crust at best. We do not have a Death Star capability or anywhere close!
The alien megastructure is made of a nano-fabricated material that we would call "coloured glass" if we ever saw it.
That's why it dims more at blue wavelengths than red.
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All OUR structures were once dust, too, and will one day be dust again.
But most dust has never been part of a structure, and probably never will be.
Or so the alien overlords would have us believe!
This more closely fits the profile of an alien megastructure engineered to resemble dust.
Only aliens with incredibly biggest technology manage to build megastructure.
Other aliens may even attain such skill as to to cloak one convincingly as dust.
What are the chances that two such civilizations would be in same place same time?
Why bother to make it resemble dust if those such as we saw megastructure first?
If we see through ruse so easily they cannot be smart enough to fool dumb people.
It's like the fox in the henhouse shouting 'No one here but us chickens!'
not fooling anyone because they know chickens cannot talk.
It was just dust why would scientists spend all this extra time performing an analysis.
That dust over here? No analysis. Over there? No analysis.
Vacuum cleaner bag burst in yo face. No analysis. This? Analysis. Suspicious.
Maybe even smart enough to build megastructure out of dust. What else to use?
Laughter?? Space contain only dark laughter and antilaughter which annihilate the joke.
Maybe is practical joke to make scientists look while picking pocket or stealing their women
Isn't it funny how cartoons have eyes at end of telescope, eyes that blink
Why dust and not Barbie Doll heads. Can science resolve Barbie Dool head this distance?
So many unanswered questions.
Has anyone checked to see if there is dust in the lens?
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>