The mysterious star KIC 8462852, whose activity is sometimes associated with a hypothetical extraterrestrial civilization, has again reminded of itself. In March, its luminosity dropped sharply again.
KIC 8462852, better known as Tabby's Star, has become one of the most hotly discussed astronomical objects in recent years. The luminary is located in the constellation Cygnus, at a distance of 1480 light years from us. In 2015, it was observed using the Kepler space observatory. As you know, when a planet passes in front of a star, the light of the latter decreases slightly for a short period of time: this can be observed at certain intervals. In the case of the star KIC 8462852, the luminosity decreased very sharply, by up to 22%. What is even more curious, scientists recorded such "jumps" over different time intervals, which could be five days, and could be several tens.
All of the above has led to the emergence of a variety of hypotheses, including "fantastic". So, some experts said that the behavior of KIC 8462852 can be explained by the construction around the star of the so-called. "Dyson Spheres" - a hypothetical astro-engineering structure, which can only be created by an overdeveloped civilization. It is also noteworthy that even this hypothesis cannot fully explain all the metamorphoses with "Tabby".
Now the American astronomer Tabeta Boyajian, who first described KIC 8462852, announced a new decrease in the star's luminosity. On Friday, March 16, 2018, Tabby's Star again became dimmer for a short time. The luminosity difference was 4%.
This, seemingly insignificant drop, is actually a record one in recent years. It is difficult to explain it using the example of other stars. Scientists have previously studied 193 luminaries located in relative proximity to KIC 8462852, as well as a number of stars, the characteristics of which are very similar to those of the "Tabby Star". In none of the examples cited, astronomers have observed an overall tarnish of more than 2-3%.
Recall that not so long ago, a group of researchers tried to explain the strangeness of KIC 8462852 by vibrations of the rings of one of its hypothetical major planets. Such a planet, in theory, can obscure the star itself or with its rings. This comes from different angles, creating the effect that Earth researchers observe. It is worth saying that this hypothesis had already been criticized earlier, but scientists introduced a number of new parameters into their model, which made it possible to formulate the version more plausibly.
Ilya Vedmedenko