Astronomers continue to try to solve the mystery of the star KIC 8462852 in the constellation Cygnus - in September, scientists talked about unusual changes in the star's luminosity.
It attracted the attention of SETI specialists, who suggested that the reason could be a cluster of solar collectors (Dyson sphere) and began research using the ATA radio telescope (Allen Antenna Array).
The star is located at a distance of 1480 light years from Earth, studies carried out using Kepler's data have shown that its luminosity can drop sharply - up to 22% over different time intervals from 5 to 80 days.
This prompted scientists to suggest that many adjacent objects must revolve around the star, for example, it may be surrounded by a disk of dust and debris.
However, this feature is inherent in young stars, and KIC 8462852 is not. If a planet passed in front of the star's disk, the blinking would be more regular. Another suggestion is passing near another star, which led to the appearance of a cloud of comets, which, as they orbit and decay, can cause such strange light curves.
According to Massimo Marengo from the University of Iowa at Ames, in addition to the swarm of comets, there could be two more "natural" reasons explaining the anomaly - the collision of small planets and the accumulation of asteroids at one point in the system. Marengo and his colleagues decided to test these theories using data from the Spitzer infrared telescope over the past few years.
With the help of Spitzer, it was possible to find out that in 2012–2013 and in 2015, there were no dust particles in the star's orbit, which make up protoplanetary disks, and arising from collisions of asteroids.
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The infrared telescope helped determine that its orbit lacked the thermal vibrations inherent in these particles, which means that versions with asteroid clusters or small planet collisions are no longer valid.
To date, the "comet" version remains the only possible "natural" reason for the unusual changes in luminosity.
Marengo denies the "alien" theory, in his opinion, in the future, new observations and research are needed to refute it.