It is almost certainly not aliens, but the incredibly strange behavior of the star Tabbi once again made astronomers think about such an opportunity. A real confusion for researchers, this star first became in the fall of 2015, when astronomer Jason Wright suggested that the cause of her so strange behavior (namely, an extreme change in luminosity) may be some alien magistructure. However, unlike previous studies, which were carried out after the fact after changes in its luminosity, now astronomers decided to study the star, as they say, in the "live".
The fact that the star again took on the old and began to demonstrate a changing level of brightness, a day previously reported via Twitter himself Jason Wright.
According to the portal Popular Science, about a 3 percent decrease in luminosity was confirmed by the Fairborn Observatory, located in Arizona (USA). Given the already known indices of luminosity reduction in stars, this can not be called ordinary behavior. Early attempts to explain this phenomenon were diverse. A swarm of comets circling the star was suggested, and the fact that the star literally eats one of its exoplanets, well, and, of course, the aliens who built around the star a megastructure for extracting energy.
For the first time the Tabby star, or KIC 8462852, was discovered in the Kepler space telescope database. Since then, it has never ceased to amaze both simple amateur astronomers and eminent scientists from around the world. In more than four years of Kepler's observation, the level of light emanating from the star has been sharply reduced from time to time. In one such case, the luminosity drop was 20 percent. In general, the more astronomers look at this star, the more puzzles it creates.
An analysis of the old photographic plates showed that, for the whole of the 20th century, the brightness of the star declined by an impressive 19 percent. The analysis of Kepler's data only confirmed that the decrease in luminosity has a long-playing character. At some point, the idea arose that the best option for solving the mystery of the star Tabbi would be direct observation of it simultaneously in all the spectra at the time of diminishing its brightness. Having organized a successful crowdsfunding campaign and having collected the necessary funds for work, astronomers set to work.
Work began to boil. Astronomers from all over the world, including amateurs, are now directing their telescopes in the direction of the star Tabbi and are watching how its performance is changing right now.
"Right now we are coordinating the work of many different telescopes," Wright told the SETI program, adding that along with both Keck telescopes in Hawaii, many other telescopes from the United States and other parts of the world will be connected tonight to watching the star.
"It will be a very interesting weekend," Wright said.
It should be noted that initially in the telescope "Kepler" star Tabbi looked like a simple white dot in the image. More accurate measurements at different wavelengths will ultimately exclude many factors that could influence its luminosity level, eventually leaving one or two of the most probable. For example, data with a high level of absorption of blue and ultraviolet light could indicate that there is a giant cloud of dust around the star. At the same time, an excess of infrared radiation could speak in favor of the hypothesis of comets.
But what can confirm the theory about the giant alien construction? Perhaps, only very extraordinary and at the same time convincing evidence.
The article is based on materials .
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