Last October, the scientific community was puzzled by the discovery some 1,500 light years from Earth in a strange star, KIC 8462852, whose light fluctuated erratically. He even came to speculate on the possibility that this star was orbited by a huge structure built by an extraterrestrial civilization. To test this hypothesis amazing, SETI Institute scientists-an organization dedicated to the pursuit of extraterrestrial intelligence have sought short laser pulses of the star, but, to the disappointment of many, have not found any.
“The hypothesis of an alien megaestructura around 8462852 KIC is falling apart quickly,” says Douglas Vakoch, president of SETI International and author of an article published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. “We have not found evidence of an advanced civilization that emits signals toward Earth intentional laser” he added.
For six nights between 29 October and 28 November, scientists sought as short pulses as a billionth of a second in Boquete in Panama Optical Observatory, using a Newtonian telescope of 0.5 meters. The instrument, relatively small, uses a unique detection method and is more sensitive to pulsed signals. If any extraterrestrial civilization was sending an intentional laser pulse toward Earth in the visible spectrum, the observatory Boquete have many options to detect it.
The curve of anomalous light of KIC 8462852 was detected by the Kepler space telescope NASA, as part of their search for exoplanets. What was strange is showing a different irregular darkening seen any other star. Despite a Jupiter-sized planet could cause a darkening of about 1%, observed in KIC 8462852 it was much higher, up to 22%. Equally strange, the fluctuation did not follow the regular pattern of a planet orbiting a star, but it was unpredictable.
cometary fragments
The best explanation to date is that these fluctuations may have been caused by fragments comments in a highly elliptical orbit KIC 8462852, intercepting starlight at the same while Kepler was watching.
“Given the great distance KIC 8462852, nearly 1,500 light-years, any signal received on Earth today have left the star shortly after the fall the Roman Empire, “says Marlin Schuetz, director of the observatory Boquete.
“If ever actually signal is detected an extraterrestrial civilization, we must be prepared to follow up at observatories around the world, as quickly as possible,” adds Vakoch. As a first test of this coordination, for three nights at the SETI observations made in Panama, KIC 8462852 was scanned simultaneously with the Allen telescope in northern California. Nor signals were detected. Maybe next time.
Source: ABC.es
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