KIC 8462852 (dipping again in March 2018)

[craigi]

There doesn't seem to be a thread about this, but it's very popular in the news today. I thought it'd be good to have a place to discuss it here.

 

[Borg]

KIC 8462852.

 

[DaveC426913]

Some really intriguing light curves here. Read the article for some explanation.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...ge_dips_in_brightness_are_a_bit_baffling.html

Look at the smooth curve lower left. That has got to be a single body transit. Multiple bodies couldn't make such a smooth curve. Yet that body results in a 15% drop in the light curve!
And it's cold, so not a companion star.

I don't see how exo-comet fragments can explain this.

Black dwarf?

 

[inuk2600]

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.

 

[DaveC426913]

That's been considered, yes.
The problem is, the farther from the star the more incredibly unlikely that they would line up and stayed lined up.

 

[inuk2600]

That's been considered, yes.
The problem is, the farther from the star the more incredibly unlikely that they would line up and stayed lined up.

Some really intriguing light curves here. Read the article for some explanation.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...ge_dips_in_brightness_are_a_bit_baffling.html

Look at the smooth curve lower left. That has got to be a single body transit. Multiple bodies couldn't make such a smooth curve. Yet that body results in a 15% drop in the light curve!
And it's cold, so not a companion star.

I don't see how exo-comet fragments can explain this.

Black dwarf?

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

 

[nsaspook]

KIC 8462852 – Where’s the flux?

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.03622v1.pdf

 

[Czcibor]

KIC 8462852.

Shouldn't a part of Dyson Sphere be a bit closer thus obscure its star in more regular and frequent pattern?
Those aliens really do a shoddy work and park their panels on wrong orbits. Next time, when they arrive to make crop circles someone would have to explain that to them ;)

EDIT: Media are delighted because right now no explanation is really convincing, but this "alien did it" part is also not so good.

Personally I'd opt for some collision stuff, planets with rings and selection bias.

 

[Vanadium 50]

It's not out of the question that the star itself is variable. It doesn't fit any known categories, but in 1994 neither did Gamma Doradus. (Now it's in the category of "Gamma Doradus variables".)

 

[nsaspook]

...
EDIT: Media are delighted because right now no explanation is really convincing, but this "alien did it" part is also not so good.

This is another case where IMO it takes 'Two to Tango'. Someone with book on Aliens sees the KIC 8462852 paper, makes a juicy line and calls a media friend to push it. The media person calls the author of the original paper and pushes them for an Alien connection that they probably laugh at and say sure that's, possible.

Next stop, Dyson Sphere and Time Ships.

 

[Artribution]

Shouldn't a part of Dyson Sphere be a bit closer thus obscure its star in more regular and frequent pattern?
Those aliens really do a shoddy work and park their panels on wrong orbits.

Aliens: Thank you, Earth ape. We'd love to have a look at one of your designs.

 

[TurtleMeister]

Some really intriguing light curves here. Read the article for some explanation.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astr...ge_dips_in_brightness_are_a_bit_baffling.html

Look at the smooth curve lower left. That has got to be a single body transit. Multiple bodies couldn't make such a smooth curve. Yet that body results in a 15% drop in the light curve!
And it's cold, so not a companion star.

I don't see how exo-comet fragments can explain this.

Black dwarf?

That lightcurve looks very similar (except for it's magnitude) to the one produced by KIC12557548, which is discussed in this Scientific American blog from May 2012. They also give a possible explanation.

 

[Vanadium 50]

That lightcurve looks very similar (except for it's magnitude) to the one produced by KIC12557548, which is discussed in this Scientific American blog from May 2012.

Same group too.

 

[DaveC426913]

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

I know. Looking for plausible explanations.

 

[DaveC426913]

Once we blow through all the alien jokes, maybe we can talk serious.

 

[inuk2600]

I know. Looking for plausible explanations.

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

 

[Andy Resnick]

Here it is, captured @ 85/2, 1 hr integration time, 300% magnification:

 

[Dotini]

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

Here's a new idea from 1957:

 

[DaveC426913]

Here it is, captured @ 85/2, 1 hr integration time, 300% magnification:

I KNEW it!
Look at that giant ring. Aliens, plain as day!

 

[newjerseyrunner]

So the object in orbit is very close, has too little mass to create much of a wobble in the host star, but covers a surface area much larger than Jupiter?

I KNEW it!
Look at that giant ring. Aliens, plain as day!

Giant ring huh? Obviously a Halo joke, but it gave me an idea.

If you tipped Saturn on it's side like Uranus and put it close to the sun, would it block enough light? It'd be quite variable since sometimes you'd see the rings head on and it'd block only as much light as the planet disc itself, but sometimes you'd see the rings from "above" and it'd have a shadow of hundreds of thousands of miles.

If the planet is that close to the star, it's moons are probably quite active and could easily create a ring I wo

 

[DaveC426913]

Giant ring huh? Obviously a Halo joke, but it gave me an idea.

No, look at the picture! Post 17. Oh never mind, the joke's lost.

Besides, Larry Niven's Ringworld was around decades before today's video games... :P

 

[Drakkith]

Besides, Larry Niven's Ringworld was around decades before today's video games... :P

Nonsense! The world didn't exist before video games!

 

[ZenShadow]

We'll know more when SETI tunes in ... and, oh let's point ole Hubble at 'er and see what's up.

 

[sophiecentaur]

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.

Would it be naive of me to suggest that, if that were the explanation, they would be regularly blocking off the light from many other sources? That would take an almost trivial test to verify the idea or otherwise.

 

[Bandersnatch]

Before jumping to conclusions and speculation, I'd suggest people first read the paper linked by nsaspook in post #7. Section 4.4.1 provides constraints on the size and orbit of the debris.
To be frank, I don't even see where the whole Dyson sphere (or swarm or ring) idea came from, other than an off-kilter comment by one of the scientists. It doesn't fit the constraints at all.

 

[inuk2600]

Would it be naive of me to suggest that, if that were the explanation, they would be regularly blocking off the light from many other sources? That would take an almost trivial test to verify the idea or otherwise.

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?

 

[inuk2600]

Before jumping to conclusions and speculation, I'd suggest people first read the paper linked by nsaspook in post #7. Section 4.4.1 provides constraints on the size and orbit of the debris.
To be frank, I don't even see where the whole Dyson sphere (or swarm or ring) idea came from, other than an off-kilter comment by one of the scientists. It doesn't fit the constraints at all.

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

 

[Bandersnatch]

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

Follow to section 4.4.5.

 

[inuk2600]

Follow to section 4.4.5.

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 than the sun and an alien Dyson sphere.

 

[Dotini]

What other crazy ideas are we considering here? Orbital comets that massively occult a star that's bigger than the sun and an alien Dyson sphere.

I prefer Hoyle's black cloud to an alien Dyson sphere.