Free Northman Reborn Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 So, many of you will recall the alien megastructure star with its weird dips, identified by Kepler a year or more ago. Well, since it was discovered it has been under constant observation by multiple telescopes around the world, waiting for another dip. Thus far to no avail. Until now. It is now dimming again. So far it is down by 3%. For reference, a Jupiter sized planet would result in a dip in intensity of about 1%. So we are at the edge of discovering some major new information about this fascinating, so far inexplicable star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maarsen Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 Last month's Scientific American had an article about this star and an analysis of all, the theories as to why it was dimming. None held up to scrutiny and the idea of alien structures is very hard to discount as no other theory meets all the known facts he dimming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 I wish the James Webb was already in orbit so that we could use it to investigate this phenomenon. Plus it should lead to lots of other discoveries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 19 hours ago, Leap said: I recall reading the asteroid explanation for the previous dimming, so I assume that might also be applicable here. Well, if it was applicable then it's applicable now. But the point is that asteroids make no more sense for the patterns they've seen so far than anything else anyone has come up with. Even if it is asteroids, they're doing something weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isalie Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 I want to believe yo. So, how far away is this thing anyway? An alien megastructure would be hella cool, but also scary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Reborn Posted May 20, 2017 Author Share Posted May 20, 2017 Basically they don't know what it is. The data doen't fit an alien megastructure scenario any better than the other theories. Yet. It is perplexing. Personally, I like the star lifting hypothesis. But that is probably the most extreme and unlikeky of the lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Mance Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 From the www.scientificamerican.com article Maarsen mentioned... We monitor the star multiple times a day, and if its light dips again, we have several telescopes ready to swing into action to measure the spectrum of the missing light, which will tell us the composition of the intervening material. Sounds like this new round of dimming could answer a few questions and, if not determine the cause, at least rule out a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Northman Reborn Posted May 20, 2017 Author Share Posted May 20, 2017 6 minutes ago, The Mance said: From the www.scientificamerican.com article Maarsen mentioned... Sounds like this new round of dimming could answer a few questions and, if not determine the cause, at least rule out a few. The latest dip has apparently come to an end. But the results are still coming in. And with this star, little dips have been found inbetween big dips, so who knows if there is more to come in the days ahead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larry of the Lawn Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 All this rimming data.. its just space accelerating and pulsing darkstars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 20, 2017 Share Posted May 20, 2017 3 hours ago, Mikael said: I want to believe yo. So, how far away is this thing anyway? An alien megastructure would be hella cool, but also scary 1,276 light-years (give or take 300), in the constellation of Cygnus. It's really not that close (although that's only 1.2% of the way across the galaxy, so it's all relative). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loge Posted May 21, 2017 Share Posted May 21, 2017 16 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: I wish the James Webb was already in orbit so that we could use it to investigate this phenomenon. Plus it should lead to lots of other discoveries. As far as the star itself is concerned, the JWST wouldn't help much. It isn't all that dim and the JWST is an infrared telescope. It could discover possible obscuring matter, though. What has been missing so far is a spectrum of the star during one of the dimming effects. That should have been taken now. This will tell us if there's any structural change in the star or it's just being obscured. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ded As Ned Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 On 5/21/2017 at 3:25 AM, Loge said: As far as the star itself is concerned, the JWST wouldn't help much. It isn't all that dim and the JWST is an infrared telescope. It could discover possible obscuring matter, though. What has been missing so far is a spectrum of the star during one of the dimming effects. That should have been taken now. This will tell us if there's any structural change in the star or it's just being obscured. Plus, if it's something blocking the light (and not the star itself dimming), the spectrum data can potentially help narrow down the possibilites of what is blocking the light (or identify it, depending on composition). Really looking forward to the results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 On 5/21/2017 at 3:25 AM, Loge said: As far as the star itself is concerned, the JWST wouldn't help much. It isn't all that dim and the JWST is an infrared telescope. It could discover possible obscuring matter, though. What has been missing so far is a spectrum of the star during one of the dimming effects. That should have been taken now. This will tell us if there's any structural change in the star or it's just being obscured. According to this the JWST is a visible and an infrared telescope. FYI:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ded As Ned Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 3 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: According to this the JWST is a visible and an infrared telescope. FYI:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope It seems to only do the orange-red end of the visible spectrum onward into infrafred, not the entire visible spectrum. The JWST will offer unprecedented resolution and sensitivity from long-wavelength (orange-red) visible light, through near-infrared to the mid-infrared (0.6 to 27 micrometers). From my amateur understanding, this would not be particularly useful in this case because infrared light doesn't get absorbed by cosmic dust and debris (making it useful for many other areas of study beyond our current capabilities, however). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loge Posted May 22, 2017 Share Posted May 22, 2017 Yes, it's a near to mid infrared telescope. Near infrared means the part of the electromagnetic spectrum just above the visible (in wavelength.) It may technically cover some part of the visible spectrum but it won't be of any use there because of its low spectral resolution. Infrared telescopes are for stuff that's cooler than stars but not extremely cold, like planets or circumstellar accretion disks. Or for observing very distant (high redshift) galaxies. If you want to learn more about the star, even a mid-sized ground based telescope will be vastly superior. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 On 2017-5-20 at 7:00 AM, Free Northman Reborn said: It's now dimming again. So far it is down by 3%. For reference, a Jupiter sized planet would result in a dip in intensity of about 1%. So we are at the edge of discovering some major new information about this fascinating, so far inexplicable star. A planet three times bigger than Jupiter is perfectly viable. You need eighty times bigger to start stellar combustion, though bigger than Jupiter and smaller than red dwarf gets you a brown dwarf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
House Balstroko Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 It would be interesting if this turned out to be a non natural occurrence (Dyson sphere?) but it could just as easily be an anomaly. There have been plenty of instances where astronomers discovered weird combinations in the universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A True Kaniggit Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 The star is over 1,000 light years away, right? Sad to think that if this isn't a natural phenomenon, then the species that caused it could already be gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
House Balstroko Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 20 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said: The star is over 1,000 light years away, right? Sad to think that if this isn't a natural phenomenon, then the species that caused it could already be gone. Not necessarily, 1000 years is a short amount of time in evolutionary terms. Unless there was a major cataclysmic event it is likely they are still around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted May 23, 2017 Share Posted May 23, 2017 7 minutes ago, House Balstroko said: Not necessarily, 1000 years is a short amount of time in evolutionary terms. Unless there was a major cataclysmic event it is likely they are still around. And more to the point, if they have the technology for a Dyson Sphere, they have the technology to turn the Earth into goo. Hunting for extra-terrestrial life never struck me as a particularly smart move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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