Astronomy
The Kepler space telescope's job is to find faraway planets that could potentially support life. But this time the telescope may have detected something even more exciting.
During it's observation Kepler has spotted a star called KIC 8462852, which behaviour is so unusual that astronomers believe some alien activity could be responsible for this.
To catch an exoplanet, Kepler sense the dip in starlight from a star which would indicate an exoplanet passing in front of it. When a planet passes in front of a star, the star dims only for a few hours or days and on a regular basis. But in this case, the star KIC 8462852 stays dark at irregular intervals for anywhere between 5 and 80 days.
As the researchers have ruled out the possibility of faulty data it's quite clear Something must be blocking the star?s light from the outside and it's not a planet. The star is also too old to be surrounded by the rings of debris that tend to circle around younger stars.
That leaves just a few explanation. One is a cloud of comets that got pulled into orbit by a migrating star, that could cause the irregular pattern of dimming.Then again, KIC 8462852 itself is a extraordinary star. Of the 150,000 stars within view of the Kepler space telescope, it is the only one to dim in this unusual way.
The second explanation may sound like science fiction, but it could be true. It says, a giant solar panel complex out there created by an advanced alien civilization to harness the energy from its sun could cause this unusual pattern of dimming.
The idea is that as alien civilizations become highly advanced, they'll need more and more energy to fuel their high-tech lifestyles. To fulfil this demand they could create huge giant solar panels to harness the energy from their star.
Astronomers are now trying to point the massive radio dishes at the star in search of the kinds of radio waves usually emitted by technology.If they find them, it would be a very very big news for us.
But again, the star we are talking about is approx 1480 light-years away from Earth, that means even if aliens did create a giant solar panel complex out there, they did so in the 6th century.
Since then Earth has changed quite a bit and who knows what could have happened around KIC 8462852?
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Astronomy
Has Kepler found a huge Alien Power Station in Space?
During it's observation Kepler has spotted a star called KIC 8462852, which behaviour is so unusual that astronomers believe some alien activity could be responsible for this.
To catch an exoplanet, Kepler sense the dip in starlight from a star which would indicate an exoplanet passing in front of it. When a planet passes in front of a star, the star dims only for a few hours or days and on a regular basis. But in this case, the star KIC 8462852 stays dark at irregular intervals for anywhere between 5 and 80 days.
As the researchers have ruled out the possibility of faulty data it's quite clear Something must be blocking the star?s light from the outside and it's not a planet. The star is also too old to be surrounded by the rings of debris that tend to circle around younger stars.
That leaves just a few explanation. One is a cloud of comets that got pulled into orbit by a migrating star, that could cause the irregular pattern of dimming.Then again, KIC 8462852 itself is a extraordinary star. Of the 150,000 stars within view of the Kepler space telescope, it is the only one to dim in this unusual way.
The second explanation may sound like science fiction, but it could be true. It says, a giant solar panel complex out there created by an advanced alien civilization to harness the energy from its sun could cause this unusual pattern of dimming.
The idea is that as alien civilizations become highly advanced, they'll need more and more energy to fuel their high-tech lifestyles. To fulfil this demand they could create huge giant solar panels to harness the energy from their star.
Astronomers are now trying to point the massive radio dishes at the star in search of the kinds of radio waves usually emitted by technology.If they find them, it would be a very very big news for us.
But again, the star we are talking about is approx 1480 light-years away from Earth, that means even if aliens did create a giant solar panel complex out there, they did so in the 6th century.
Since then Earth has changed quite a bit and who knows what could have happened around KIC 8462852?
- Kepler: Finding Earth-size And Smaller Extrasolar Planets
Tonight, March 6, a Delta II rocket lifted off from the launch pad at NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, United States. Onboard is a very special payload, Kepler. Kepler's mission is to try to reach the ages old goal of trying...
- Kepler 2 Shows How The Planets In Our Solar System Might End.
Astronomers using NASA?s re-purposed Kepler space telescope, known as K2 mission, have found strong evidence of a planet that is being torn apart as it spirals around a dead star or white dwarf in the constellation of Virgo, 571 light years from Earth....
- Most Earth Like Worlds Have Yet To Be Born.
According to a new theoretical study, Earth came early to the party in evolving universe. When our solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago, only 8 percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form in the universe existed, which means 92...
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Do You Know? 1. What is the brightest star in the night sky at any time? ...
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Picture Of The Day(Stars and Galaxies) Galaxy ...