Recent content by inuk2600

I don't follow, why?

The flux appears to go above 1.0 at day ~1550. If this is comets with highly reflective coma, could it produce an increase in flux as it swings around to the other side of the star? Also would a highly reflective coma also account for the lack of infrared?

I see, so the leading edge is more diffuse than the trailing edge? The gradient has a very comet like feel to it indeed.

That's all I got.

This is true if the objects are in orbit and local to the system. Remember these constraints assume the objects are in orbit.

Is it really a problem or a failure of imagination?

Still the author is assuming the objects are in orbit. However unlikely the relative speeds may be, can we confidently rule out the possibility that the objects are in interstellar space? What other crazy ideas are we considering here? Orbital comets that massively occult a star that's bigger...

The author specifies constraints based on the assumption of a circular orbit.

If we had the capabilitity to apply Kepler level analysis to whole sky then yes I think we would see such a thing happening. Are you suggesting the possibility of a stray but dense swarm of asteroids (ok how about comets) in interstellar space is absurd?

It was new to me, I had to wiki it. Any new ideas bubbling up out there?

The universe isn't old enough for black dwarfs, they would still be brown dwarfs radiating mad infrared at least.

Can we be sure that the obstructing bodies are local to KIC 8462852's system? Are they known to be in orbit around KIC 8462852? Perhaps they appear so large because they may be a group of stray asteroids which are much closer to us than we think, and not in fact in orbit.

That is very illuminating! It kind of takes the wind out of my sails but most appreciated none the less.

Indeed I was aware of this but rather thought that post-menopausal longevity at least partly fed back to our genes indirectly as part of kin selection as opposed to directly through the germline.

Yes, that is absolutely correct, and note that I wrote that I don't think it would ONLY end up selecting for late fertility. That's an obvious effect. Ok, then instead of envisioning a possible way to extend longevity, let's call it envisioning a possible way to increase healthy fertile age...