The weird star called Boyajian’s Star (aka Tabby’s Star or KIC 8462852) has been fascinating astronomers and people in general because of its weird behaviour of experiencing sudden, unusual dips in brightness which all current theories have so far had difficulty explaining. Now, the star has started dipping again after a long period of “normal” activity.
Read MoreBizarre Boyajian’s Star (‘alien megastructure’ star) is dipping again!
This is a great 10-part overview of Boyajian’s Star (Tabby’s Star/KIC 8462852) by astronomer and astrophysicist Jason Wright, outlining the various hypotheses to date to explain this weird star observed by the Kepler Space Telescope. Whatever is causing the unusual short-term and long-term dimming is still unknown.
Read More10-part overview of enigmatic ‘alien megastructure’ star, by Jason Wright
As has been reported previously, there is something weird going on around a star which is a little over 1,400 light-years away. Astronomers are still baffled as to just what that is, and theories have ranged from a huge mass of comets to alien megastructures. Indeed, comets had become the leading explanation offered for the star’s odd behaviour, although that was really just the best of a bunch of ideas which all had flaws in them. Now, new research shows that the comet explanation is even less likely to be the answer, although the actual explanation is still as elusive as ever. Needless to say, this has resulted in a lot of discussion and debate in the past few months.
Read MoreMystery deepens: new study shows comets don’t explain odd dimming of Kepler’s ‘weird star’
There has been a lot of discussion during the past several days regarding a discovery by the Kepler Space Telescope, which, according to some, may be the first evidence for advanced extraterrestrial intelligence, or perhaps just a weird but natural phenomenon instead.