Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday January 15 2017, @02:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the Burrrrrp! dept.

Recently, some astronomers and others have excitedly pointed to Tabby's Star (KIC 8462852) as a possible example of alien megastructures causing a star to dim. A new study favors a more terrestrial explanation - a planetary collision with the star:

A new study set to be published Monday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests that smart aliens aren't responsible for KIC 8462852's dimming. Instead, the authors suggest, a planetary collision with Tabby's Star is to blame. This crash would explain not only why Tabby's Star has had wild fluctuations in brightness as of late, but why the star has been dimming gradually over the course of the last century.

It seems strange that a spectacular collision between a star and planet would cause a star to become dimmer, explains Ken Shen, a UC Berkeley astronomer and author on the study. But, says Shen, "the star has to eventually go back to being dimmer—the equilibrium state—the state that it was at before the collision."

KC 8462852's more recent and erratic dimming episodes, however, can be explained by a mess of debris moving around the star and absorbing its light, sometimes making it appear significantly dimmer to us Earthlings.

Previously:
Mysterious Star May Be Orbited by Alien Megastructures
I'm STILL Not Sayin' Aliens. but This Star is Really Weird.
"Breakthrough Listen" to Search for Alien Radio Transmissions Near Tabby's Star


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @02:26PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 15 2017, @02:26PM (#454083)

    Now the aliens are throwing planets into star, we really need to get on this, they seem hostile!

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +3  
       Funny=3, Total=3
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by zocalo on Sunday January 15 2017, @05:17PM

    by zocalo (302) on Sunday January 15 2017, @05:17PM (#454120)
    I suppose that's one way to qualify as a Kardashev type 1 civilization, although using an entire planet as a battery does seem a rather environmentally unfriendly and non-renewable way of recovering 100% of the energy the planet received from its star... Peak Oil has nothing on Peak Planet...
    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  • (Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday January 15 2017, @09:51PM

    by theluggage (1797) on Sunday January 15 2017, @09:51PM (#454175)

    ...it only scored 30 points.