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.
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion
UNDER INVESTIGATION: Members of the local Muslim community had raised concerns with the police about the boy, who officials said might have been radicalized online A 16-year-old boy armed with a knife was shot dead by police after he stabbed a man in the Australian west coast city of Perth, officials said yesterday. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night. The teen attacked the man and then rushed at police officers before he was shot, Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told reporters. “There are indications he had been radicalized online,” Cook told a news conference, adding that it appeared he acted alone. A man in his 30s was found at the scene with a stab wound to his back.