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Dust cloud, or alien construction?

Davidm

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http://www.iflscience.com/space/milky-ways-most-mysterious-star
Kepler observed the star KIC 8462852 for four years starting in 2009. Typically, orbiting planets only dim the light of their host star for a period of a few hours to a few days depending on their orbit. A group of citizen scientists noticed that this star appeared to have two small dips in 2009, followed by a large dip lasting almost a week in 2011, and finally a series of multiple dips significantly dimming the star’s light in 2013.
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The pattern of dips indicates that the star is orbited by a large, irregular-shaped mass. If it were orbiting a young star, this mass might be a protoplanetary disc, but KIC 8462852 is not a young star. We would also expect to see the presence of dust emitting infrared light, which hasn’t been observed. So what is this orbiting mass? Scientists predict that whatever it is, it had to have formed recently as it would have been pulled in by the star’s gravity and consumed.

Boyajian recently published a paper offering several possible explanations for the bizarre transits. The leading theory is that a family of exocomets passed too close to the star, and were shredded into pieces by the star’s massive gravity. The remaining dust and debris could be left to orbit the star.

But researchers from UC Berkeley’s SETI Institute think it could be something else entirely: They think this could be a sign of alien technology.
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I vote pulverized comets or something similar, but it would certainly be cool if it was something artificial.

Edit to add a link to a PDF of the original paper: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.03622v1.pdf
 
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False dichotomy. Maybe the aliens built a dust cloud! Why would they build a dust cloud? Beats me man, they're aliens.
 
Or, simply some effect/.......? we're unfamiliar with. It'd be fairly arrogant to think we know what all the natural phenomena of the universe are.
 
The Atheist said:
Or, simply some effect/.......? we're unfamiliar with. It'd be fairly arrogant to think we know what all the natural phenomena of the universe are.
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It's almost certainly that or something obvious they're just not thinking of.

When quasar's were first discovered they considered the possibility that they were alien radio beacons.
 
Have the SETI folk become "when the only tool in your box is a hammer..." types. There would seem to be a whole lot of options between anomalous gas clouds and alien construction.
 
Foolmewunz said:
Have the SETI folk become "when the only tool in your box is a hammer..." types. There would seem to be a whole lot of options between anomalous gas clouds and alien construction.
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Firstly it's not "the SETI folk", they're only now talking about devoting resources to examine KIC 8462852. And the paper doesn't mention (or imply) aliens.

Secondly various alternatives have been examined:
An orbiting cloud of dust and rocks of sufficient size is characteristic of a younger star than KIC 8462852. Plus there's the lack of excess infra-red.
Bad data, due to problems with Kepler, has been ruled out
The idea that something, perhaps a nearbystar, perturbed the orbits of a number of comets/asteroids is reasonably plausible (such a star does exists; a red dwarf at ~440k LS) but it would be an extraordinary event given the small window of time for such an effect to be noticed before the comets/asteroids either stabilised orbit or were destroyed. Plus the amount of stellar dimming (up to ~22%) is an enormous effect for such a cloud.
The changes in apparent stellar brightness are irregular, suggesting it's not a companion in a stable orbit. Plus they're far too large for even a super-Jovian planet.

That's why some astronomers are suggesting the possibility of an artificial structure is worth considering, rather than being dismissed summarily. Further study of EM emissions is proposed. Whether this will yield alien radio leaks or emissions from organic molecules characteristic of cometery debris, well we don't know.
 
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It would be a cool way to announce your power and intellect, a partial Dyson sphere, acting as a beacon for all civilizations in sight.
 
Foolmewunz said:
Have the SETI folk become "when the only tool in your box is a hammer..." types. There would seem to be a whole lot of options between anomalous gas clouds and alien construction.
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As catsmate said, this isn't the only--or even the first--option they chose to examine. As I understand it, it's the LAST option on the list of things to look at. The significant thing here is that it's an option at all. It's on the list of reasonable possibilities. But it's not a very long list; there just aren't many ways to make a non-periodic dip in light from a star, not with this sort of spectrum anyway. Things like brown dwarfs, dust clouds, and the like can be (as I understand it) ruled out given the nature of the oclusions we've seen.
 
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crescent said:
This is really cool. I wish we could really ramp up the space program to do more of this sort of science. Lately everything we look at surprises us - Pluto, Mars, the various comets and asteroids that have been visited, everything.

I just really geek out about the space program sometimes.
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You should probably learn to speak Chinese then.
 
catsmate said:
Firstly it's not "the SETI folk", they're only now talking about devoting resources to examine KIC 8462852. And the paper doesn't mention (or imply) aliens.
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SETI should STFU. Astronomy, not science fiction.

That paper might not have mentioned aliens, but every other piece I've seen on it (lots) have, and almost all of the dailies have led with the word "Aliens" in their headline/clickbait.

Aepervius said:
In this case dust cloud , brown dwarf any many other body orbiting could be the culprit.
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I think dwarf/black hole/other single entity has been ruled out my some means far too smart for me to understand. Phil Plait says it and they're easily testable, so I'll believe him.

That's why they're looking at clusters of small objects that could block light but not have massive gravity, hence comets or... or... aliens!

The comet theory does sound as unlikely as aliens - I can't make a rational case for why or how they would act that way and people with infinitely large resources and brains have been looking at it for a while now and they're highly skeptical of that idea as well, and are only including it on the reasonable basis that it is possible.

Why is this not just being called the KIC 8462852 Anomaly? It is unknown and deserves to be highlighted that way. That should be the main attraction - a WTF, not Nanu Nanu.

Some other way out ideas that are possible. Gotta admit, I'm surprised the god-botherers aren't onto it already.

God is sitting in front of it every now and then. No mass = no gravity + being god, he can block the light if he wishes.

Proof of Spinoza's God! It is the universe itself, sending out its message of creation in a code not quite completely dissimilar from Morse.

That star is the gateway to other universes and the doorway floats past every now and then.
 
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