It was too good to be true.
Scientists have ruled out the most exotic explanation — an orbiting alien mega-structure — for the behavior of a celestial oddity dubbed Tabby’s Star that has been puzzling scientists with its sporadic dimming and brightening.
Astronomers on Wednesday said that the most thorough study to date of the star, officially called KIC 8462852, showed that its dimming episodes are not caused by a large opaque object passing in front of it.
Photo: Reuters
The dimming could be due to some sort of dust, they added, though the cause remains uncertain.
The researchers relied on observations of Tabby’s Star from March 2016 to last month using Las Cumbres Observatory telescopes in Maui, Hawaii, and the Canary Islands.
The star is named after Louisiana State University astrophysicist Tabetha Boyajian, who was instrumental in identifying its idiosyncrasies in 2015.
Beginning in May last year, the scientists observed four episodes when the star’s light dipped.
The data showed less dimming in the star’s red light than in its blue light, and a large opaque object would dim all colors of light equally when passing in front of a star, Boyajian said.
“We took measures of the star’s brightness in several colors. Data taken in this way can inform us on what kind of material is passing in front of the star,” Boyajian added.
Numerous hypotheses have been offered about the star’s occasional dimming, including a hypothetical mega-structure called a Dyson Sphere built to surround a star and harvest its energy.
“Sure, it’s disappointing that this isn’t the anomaly that will turn out to be that big discovery, but we always knew the chances were low. It’s like finding out that your lottery ticket isn’t a winner — disappointing, but not surprising,” said another of the researchers, Penn State astrophysicist Jason Wright.
Tabby’s star, about 40 percent bigger than the sun, is located about 1,280 light-years away from our solar system in the constellation Cygnus. Its light has been observed dimming as much as 22 percent.
The new observations were consistent with the effects of dust on starlight, Wright said.
There was no hint of gas along with the dust, he said.
“We still aren’t 100 percent sure where the dust is, but it seems to be somewhere around the star,” Wright added. “We’re still not sure where it’s coming from — maybe colliding asteroids or comets.”
The findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing