Nasa/JPL-CaltechThat weird ‘alien megastructure’ has been behaving strangely again and no-one seems to know why.
This really strange star – known as ‘Tabby’s star’ – has people up in arms as they are desperate to believe it is surrounded by creepy alien life.
This strange star – code named KIC 8462852 – has been seen dimming again and has sent its Twitter and Reddit followers into a frenzy – yes people are avidly observing this odd piece of matter.
The star is being constantly tracked by those with telescopes, as people hope to record its ‘fluctuating spectra.’
WikimediaTwo years ago, astronomers noted the star’s brightness was fluctuating, which could mean either it had slid in front of something or it has the capacity to dim itself.
Dr Tabetha Boyajian – who the star is named after – was the first author to study this incredible form and since then, everyone seems to ahve an opinion on what it is exactly and what’s causing it’s luminosity to fluctuate.
This is where the ‘alien megastructure’ comes in, which is apparently responsible for blocking out the light, although I’m not sure this would be entirely credible…
Other weird and wonderful theories include a cloud of comets were surrounding the star – which could explain why it appears bright then dim as it has been recorded to do since the 1890s.
NasaHowever, it starts to fall apart once you realise for this to happen, 648,000 comets would be needed – each spanning 125 miles across – which seems pretty unlikely…
As well as this, some people have suggested it is a ‘variable star,’ – like our Sun – meaning that it is well, subjected to variables, meaning it can grow or shrink and even dim when another star moves in front of it.
Tabby’s star is an F-Type, which means it should be very stable and only show small changes in brightness, which is strange considering the star has seen its brightness plummet by three per cent in the last four years.
Other suggestions – that it’s been consuming a fragmenting planet, or that a massive cloud of dust keeps obscuring it – have also fallen by the wayside.
As for aliens, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) have trained their scopes at it, and have not found any signals indicative of mechanically-generated heat.
