The matter seemed resolved, but it is not. The case of the star KIC 8462852, that it could have around a ‘mega alien structure “remains open. A team of astronomers, in fact, has now disproved the theory that their strange brightness oscillations are due to a swarm of comets.
Last October, astronomers were shocked by the discovery of strange fluctuations in brightness of a star is “only” 1,500 light years from Earth, between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Normally, when a planet passes in front of a star, the light dims slightly and, therefore,
is reduced.
Many terrestrial telescopes use these changes precisely to locate new worlds. However, in these cases the light variation is usually very small, and even the major planets detected so far hardly represent a 1% dimming of starlight. But the case of KIC 8462852 was very different in that its brightness is reduced to 22%. This suggests that something very, very big, sometimes must cross in front of her.
And what is more, the variations in brightness of the star does not have a regular pattern, but occur randomly and unpredictably. Which means another objection to the planetary hypothesis, since the planets tend to have regular orbits and therefore, pass in front of the star at precise intervals of time.
From that moment, there were all sorts of hypotheses to try to explain the phenomenon. Including a possible “mega structure” alien, a device built by a hypothetical advanced civilization probably get star power. The idea, though not accepted, yes that was considered “plausible” by more than one investigator.
Of course, scientists began looking for alternative explanations. And given the impossibility of the strange light pattern was caused by a planet, the best explanation was that it could be due to a dense cloud of comets that had an erratic orbit KIC 8462852, lifting his alrederor enough dust to justify darkening detected.
But a new analysis conducted by Bradley Schaefer, an astronomer at Louisiana State University, who has analyzed in detail the last hundred years of the history of the star shows that the hypothesis of comets is equally unlikely that any of the others. Including the possible “mega structure” alien. Schaefer’s work is published on arXiv.org.
Too many comets
But let’s recap. Last October, explaining the cloud of comets seemed the most logical. Another star could have spent about KIC 8462852 to destabilize your system enough. And the gravitational force of that second star could have caused a large mass of comets shoot out in all directions, like a swarm of bees whose hive was being destroyed.
In theory, and based on what we know of KIC 8462852, explanation, if somewhat forced, could make sense. In September last year, and one month before astronomers from the University of Pennsylvania put on the table the idea of alien structure, the discoverer of unusual darkening (Tabetha Boyajian, of Yale University) reconstructed the history of the star during the last hundred years from all available photographic plates, looking for a similar pattern in the recent past, but found nothing.
Now, Schaefer and his team reviewed the data using a different method of analysis, and have realized that, between 1890 and 1989, 8,462,852 brightness KIC has been gradually reduced to 20%. “This effect explains the researcher, is very small and not obvious.”
In short, Schaefer estimated that 20% darkening that occurs, would be required, neither more nor less than about 648,000 kites (one each 200 km) had passed in front of KIC 8462852, which is quite improbable . “The idea of comets continues Schaefer- was reasonable and spread like the best of the proposals, while knowing that all of them were very poor. But now we have a refutation of that idea and, indeed, all other ideas published “.
Which makes it necessary to return to the beginning, and recognize that, for now, we still have the faintest idea what’s really going on in KIC 8462852. And despite the Schaefer himself continues to insist that any megaestructura alien should be radiating heat, and that heat does not appear anywhere in the infrared observations of the star, the idea of aliens again has a clear field.
“Any of our ideas have a problem hidden assures the investigator to New Scientist. We need some theoretical put on the table another proposal.”
What is not in doubt is that scientists continue to seek a convincing explanation. Science works well, proposing and refuting ideas until they are given with the right. In the case of KIC 8462852, history therefore remains open. And we must be very attentive to their next chapters …
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