Scientists at the University of Nebraska have discovered anomalous stars similar to KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby's Star or Boyajian's Star. Non-periodic dips in the brightness of the star still have no unambiguous explanation. According to one hypothesis, artificial megastructures like the Dyson sphere could have caused the darkening. This is reported by Science Alert.
The researchers analyzed photometric data collected from April 1999 to March 2000 while observing a 2,980 square degree patch of sky as part of the Northern Sky Variable Survey. They were looking for stars with behavior similar to Tabby's. The discovery of other similar objects could help scientists establish the real reasons for the non-periodic blackouts of KIC 8462852.
A total of 21 candidate stars were discovered, whose irregular variability in brightness is not explained by known reasons. Astronomers have compared the light curves (graphs of light changes over time) of the candidate stars with the light curves of Tabby's star and categorized them into two categories. The first included 15 stars with a slow brightness change (including the Tabby star itself), the second - six stars with a fast one.
Stars in both groups are either main sequence stars (like the Sun) or red giants. Moreover, the most likely analogs of KIC 8462852 are main sequence stars with slow brightness variations.