Washington, June 5 (EFE) .- An astronomer at Yale University (USA) has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds that allow you to explore in depth a star whose brightness could be explained changing a concept of science fiction applicable to advanced extraterrestrial civilizations
of the 150,000 stars analyzed by the Kepler space telescope, only one, so far, he has been left without explanation astronomers. KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby’s star in honor of the scientist from Yale Tabetha Boyajian, who began investigating this distant star in the Milky Way.
the Kepler telescope, which stored data of stars with possible planets from 2009 to 2013, has allowed us to analyze the brightness of a star cluster in the constellation Cygnus to determine whether these stars are orbited by celestial bodies, which has shown that most stars form planetary systems.
in the fall of 2015, scientists and citizens discovered a star with a brightness that can not be easily explained by natural phenomena and could be the first test of a theory developed decades ago to detect advanced civilizations in space.
“De a dozen natural explanations that have analyzed any fits with the brightness of this star. The theory of a Dyson sphere is something that could explain the erratic brightness, but is very general, “he explains in an interview with Efe Boyajian.
The Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megaestrucutura panels around a star would be used by a very advanced civilization that has consumed the resources of their planet and needs huge amounts of energy.
This theory, developed by physicist Freeman Dyson in the sixties, could explain why the brightness star Tabby does not have a periodic change and is almost completely obscured at times, something that has never been detected before.
But Kepler can no longer gather more information about this star by a failure in 2013, and Boyajian and astronomers around the world who have been captivated by this strange star need more data to decipher the enigma.
to do this, have begun a campaign of crowdfunding (kck.st/1PaKfxB) that aims to raise before the end of the month $ 100,000.
“We want to lead the star a network of private telescopes around the world to help monitor constantly the star to detect when it begins to decay its brightness and taking measurements as it does not behave regularly, “explains Boyajian.
Although it is difficult to reach the detection capability of a space telescope, Boyajian is confident that powerful ground-based observatories can observe other wavelengths from the star, which is not visible from the earth three months a year.
“we need to constantly monitor the fluctuations in starlight because we do not know at what point the brightness begins to decline,” says the astronomer, who recalled that participation in the collaborative project Planet Hunter was what allowed finding this unclassifiable star.
Another explanation for the unusual behavior of this star would that be orbited by a massive amalgamation of comets and asteroid dust, which Bradley Schaefer, a scientist at the University of Louisiana, assumes impossible after making calculations.
Boyajian wants to keep this campaign fundraising spirit of global collaboration that allowed finding star that bears his name and that if new data permit, could indicate the existence of ours to 1,500 light years more advanced civilization
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