These are almost certainly not aliens, but the incredibly strange behavior of Tabby's star has once again made astronomers think about such a possibility. This star became a real obsession for researchers for the first time in the fall of 2015, when astronomer Jason Wright suggested that the cause of its strange behavior (namely, an extreme change in luminosity) could be some kind of alien magastructure. However, unlike previous studies, which were carried out after the fact after changes in its luminosity, now astronomers have decided to study the star, as they say, on the air.
The fact that the star again took up the old and began to demonstrate a changing level of brightness, Jason Wright himself announced via Twitter a day earlier.
According to the Popular Science portal, a decrease in luminosity by about 3 percent was confirmed by the Fairborn Observatory, located in Arizona (USA). Taking into account the already known indicators of decreasing luminosity in stars, this cannot be called normal behavior. Early attempts to explain this phenomenon were varied. A swarm of comets circling around the star, and the fact that the star literally eats one of its exoplanets, and, of course, aliens, who built a kind of megastructure around the star for energy production, were proposed.
For the first time, the star Tabby, or KIC 8462852, was discovered in the database of the Kepler space telescope. Since then, it has never ceased to amaze both ordinary amateur astronomers and eminent scientists from around the world. Over the more than four years of Kepler's observation, the level of light emanating from the star has dropped sharply from time to time. In one of these cases, the luminosity drop rate was as much as 20 percent. In general, the more astronomers look at this star, the more mysteries it creates for them.
Analysis of old photographic plates showed that in total, over the entire 20th century, the star's brightness decreased by an impressive 19 percent. Analysis of Kepler's data only confirmed that the decrease in luminosity has a long-term character. At some point, the idea arose that the best option for solving the mystery of Tabby's star would be direct observation of it simultaneously in all spectra at the time of its decrease in brightness. After organizing a successful crowdfunding campaign and raising the necessary funds for the work, the astronomers got down to business.
The work was in full swing. Astronomers from all over the world, including amateurs, are now pointing their telescopes towards Tabby's star and watching how its numbers are changing right now.
“We are coordinating many different telescopes right now,” Wright said in an interview with SETI, adding that along with both Keck telescopes in Hawaii, many other telescopes from the United States and other parts of the world will be joining Tabby's Star observation tonight.
"It will be a very exciting weekend," Wright said.
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It should be noted that Tabby's star initially appeared as a simple white dot in the image in the Kepler telescope data. More accurate measurements at different wavelengths will ultimately eliminate many factors that could affect its luminosity level, ultimately leaving one or two most likely. For example, data with high absorption of blue and ultraviolet light could indicate that there is a giant cloud of dust around the star. At the same time, an excess of infrared radiation could speak in favor of the comet hypothesis.
But what can support the theory of a giant alien structure? Perhaps only very extraordinary and at the same time convincing evidence.
