Mysterious star : the thesis of a structure of extra-terrestrial definitively ruled out

AFP

AFP

Wednesday, January 3, 2018 12:40

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Wednesday, January 3, 2018 12:43

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WASHINGTON | scientists have definitely ruled out the thesis of an infrastructure of extra-terrestrial giant around the mysterious star “Tabby” to explain its strong brightness variations, sometimes sudden and prolonged, that they attribute to dust clouds.

In October 2015, the american astronomer Jason Wright of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, had made a sensation by suggesting that this strange phenomenon could perhaps be explained by the presence of a Dyson sphere, a mégastructure built by a civilization of extra-terrestrial to capture the energy of the star.

It took several months of observations for a team of more than 200 astrophysicists rejects this hypothesis.

“The dust is the most likely cause of these brightness variations of the star “, says Tabetha Boyajian, assistant professor, Louisiana State University and main author of this work, published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

“The new data collected during the observations reveal different colors of light blocked at different intensities. This means that what passes between us the star is not opaque, leaving a mégastructure extra-terrestrial or a planetary body, “says Tabetha Boyajian, whose name inspired the nickname of the star “Tabby” scientifically known as KIC 8462852.

This star, referred to by scientists as ” the most mysterious of the Universe “, is located more than 1000 light-years from Earth. About 50% larger than our Sun, it is also 1000 degrees hotter.

Even if the scientists have ruled out the idea of a giant structure of extra-terrestrial, ” the latest observations may be also the signature of other natural phenomena “, advanced astrophysicist Jason Wrigh, one of the co-authors of this study.

“There are mathematical models simulating materials circumstellar like exocomètes, in orbit around a star, which seems to correspond to the data that we have collected “, he says.

Tabby was discovered with the Kepler space telescope, developed by Nasa and dedicated to the detection of exoplanets when they pass in front of their star and are reducing momentarily their brightness.

More than 1,700 people have donated $ 100,000 on the platform Kickstarter to further study this star.

The astronomers of the observatory of the Las Cumbres in California studied it closely between march 2016 and December 2017.