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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Tabby's Star, speculated to be surrounded by a cloud of debris or alien megastructures, has dimmed yet again, causing multiple observatories to take notice [scientificamerican.com]:

Among the telescopes [Jason] Wright said researchers now hope to use to catch this dimming event in the act:

—The Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope
—The Automated Planet Finder at Lick Observatory near San Jose, Calif., a robotic optical telescope
—Both telescopes at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which operate in optical and near-infrared wavelengths
—The MMT Observatory in Arizona, an optical telescope
—NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, which operates in gamma ray, x-ray, ultraviolet and optical wavelengths
—Las Cumbres Observatory, a worldwide network of robotic optical telescopes
—Fairborn Observatory in Arizona, which operates in optical wavelengths
—The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, which operates in optical and near-infrared wavelengths
—The Hobby–Eberly Telescope in Texas, an optical telescope

Also at The Verge [theverge.com].

One astronomer has proposed looking at the nearest 43 to 85 pulsars for megastructures [universetoday.com] (arXiv [arxiv.org]):

Osmanov estimates that the habitable zone around a relatively slowly-rotating pulsar (with a period of about half a second) would be on the order of 0.1 AU. According to his calculations, a ring-like megastructure that orbited a pulsar at this distance would emit temperatures on the order of 390 K (116.85 °C; 242.33 °F), which means that the megastructure would be visible in the IR band.

Previously: Mysterious Star May Be Orbited by Alien Megastructures [soylentnews.org]
I'm STILL Not Sayin' Aliens. but This Star is Really Weird. [soylentnews.org]
"Breakthrough Listen" to Search for Alien Radio Transmissions Near Tabby's Star [soylentnews.org]
Non-Alien Explanation for Tabby's Star Dimming: It Ate a Planet [soylentnews.org]

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