It is becoming less and less likely to explain the strange twinkling of the distant star KIC 8462852 in the constellation Cygnus. This star caused a lot of confusion last October when it was suggested that it may be surrounded by some kind of alien megastructure.
The first signs of the strange behavior of KIC 8462852 were detected by the Kepler Space Telescope, which observed the fluctuations in the brightness of stars in order to detect extrasolar planets. The largest planets discovered this way can block up to 1% of starlight. However, the star KIC 8462852 loses its brightness by up to 20% and, in addition, it can last for weeks.
Periodic blackouts also don't happen at regular intervals, only sporadically, so this almost certainly can't be a planet. It may be an irregular cloud of dust or gas.
Initially, scientists couldn't believe what they saw when they noticed that the star's brightness had decreased and began looking for data for errors. However, everything turned out to be good, and astrophysicists see what they see. After considering various possible scenarios, experts suggested that dust from a large comet cloud would be the best explanation.
But immediately after putting forward this hypothesis, scientists recognized that it is difficult to find such a large cluster of comets that blocks starlight.
When the historical brightness data for the star KIC 8462852 was analyzed, it was found that its brightness has also decreased by about 20% in the past. This is very strange for F-stars, which never do this.
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More than 1,200 images of the intriguing star were found in the celestial archives from 1890 to 1989 at the Harvard College Observatory Photo Archive. This abundance of data points showed that the star KIC 8462852 behaves even more strangely, as it blinks at short intervals, from 5 to 80 days.
Proponents of the theory that it is she who is responsible for an advanced alien civilization received important confirmation of their theory. A megastructure hypothesis such as solar panels absorbing light from a star is now considered one of the possible options.
The scientists cautiously add that this is obviously unlikely, but they admit that such an explanation fits the description of what we see. The SETI organization, which is looking for extraterrestrial life, was also interested in this issue, but no trace of radio signals from this direction was found.
The results also changed the requirements for the alien megastructure hypothesis. It has been estimated that hypothetical aliens would have to build at least 750 billion square kilometers of solar panels to achieve a 20% reduction in the star's brightness.
It's like covering panels 1,500 times the area on Earth. It sounds so surprising that scientists are still hoping to find a better explanation for the special behavior of stars.