I'm not saying it's aliens,...

[dawp]

but it's aliens!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...ge_dips_in_brightness_are_a_bit_baffling.html

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/


interesting tho it likely isn't

 

[John Connor]

This

or a massive Death Star.

 

[Daedalus685]

This

or a massive Death Star.

Oh man, what if it's a giant death stare that shoots black holes?!?!

We're doomed!! Doomed!!!

 

[SlitheryDee]

A minute ago I didn't even know about KIC 8462852. Now I absolutely have to know what's floating around it. Doesn't matter if it's aliens or not. Anything that big has got to be crazy looking.

So let's say it's aliens building a collection of solar panels around their sun. At 1500 light years away they probably finished it some time ago right? One way to test the theory would be to make follow up observations over a very long period of time, say the next few hundred years, to see if the amount of blockage increases over time. It doesn't exactly prove anything. They may already be done building, or have died out, or an increase could be explainable by natural phenomena. It would still be suggestive though.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I'm assuming they've already ruled out gas/dust clouds? They keep talking about how it has to be at least half the size of this huge star....if one assumes there aren't asteroids out there the size of suns etc etc, what else is there that varies levels of density and would seem random, but moving dust/gas clouds?

 

[Ruptga]

:hmm:

I was going to post the dumbest explanation I could think of, but whatever that would have been has already been surpassed. Shit.

 

[Genx87]

Pretty interesting stuff. What if instead of solar panels they are building a device to shield a % of their suns energy due to an increase in output? In roughly 1 billion years our Sun is expected to increase output to the point our planet will be uninhabitable.

 

[CraKaJaX]

 

[William Gaatjes]

Can it not be a gravitational lensing effect ? That the red dwarf changes the direction of the light ?

 

[dainthomas]

It's obvious they're assembling a battle fleet to come nuke our solar system into oblivion.

 

[GlacierFreeze]

I'm assuming they've already ruled out gas/dust clouds? They keep talking about how it has to be at least half the size of this huge star....if one assumes there aren't asteroids out there the size of suns etc etc, what else is there that varies levels of density and would seem random, but moving dust/gas clouds?

Yes, some of the conclusions that the data refutes is natural debris floating around. Said this is normal to happen but the period of time that this has been going on for this star, the gravitational pull would have already pulled it in and destroyed it, meaning the readings they have been getting would have stopped by now or at least drastically changed.

 

[PliotronX]

 

[John Connor]

via Imgflip Meme Maker

:awe: LMAO!

 

[John Connor]

 

[OverVolt]

Other thread better.

 

[Phoenix86]

Mimas?

 

[mmntech]

It's a main sequence star according to Wikipedia. My first instinct was perhaps a brown dwarf. It would be large, difficult to detect, but probably wouldn't have the irregular patters astronomers are seeing. The debris theory makes the most sense. Could be comets or a planet got crushed somehow.

The alien theory is intriguing though. 1,500 light years is fairly close in astronomical terms. Still to far though to send a message. NASA needs to get working on that warp drive.

 

[Fire&Blood]

The alien theory is intriguing though. 1,500 light years is fairly close in astronomical terms. Still to far though to send a message. NASA needs to get working on that warp drive.

Yes, let's contact technologically superior life forms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT_Q_iAnmys

 

[mmntech]

I hope they're non-violent so we can walk in and take their shiz.

 

[destrekor]

Mimas?

That's no moon!

 

[Fritzo]

Can it not be a gravitational lensing effect ? That the red dwarf changes the direction of the light ?

There's something just plain blocking the light in unusual patterns. Think trying to see the horizon over the skyline of a city.

 

[Ruptga]

There's something just plain blocking the light in unusual patterns. Think trying to see the horizon over the skyline of a city.

Yes, but we have no idea what we're really looking at, only that light is being blocked. It's probably not aliens, and if it is then our distant descendants may well be fucked because those guys were building orbital megastructures when the Byzantines were dicking around with greek fire. What will probably happen is that a bunch of astronomers will research it and within a couple decades at least one of them will write an interesting paper on it.

 

[ctbaars]

dark matter

 

[Paratus]

That's where the Enterprise-D finds Scotty!

 

[Jeff7]

Yes, let's contact technologically superior life forms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT_Q_iAnmys

Hopefully they'll perceive it as we would perceive a scarcely-detectable chemical signature from a distant colony of bacteria.



That, or we'll be like a mouse wandering across a field wearing a bright orange vest, singing loudly. Some predators might swoop in quickly and tow back a big ball of iron, but others might wonder, "Damn, that thing's all out there like he just doesn't give a damn. Dude must be completely batshit psycho. I'd better not bother him."