Why SETI and NASA suspect Tabetha Boyajian of Yale University KIC 8462852 star is a Dyson Sphere

Looks like there is more than meets the eye when it comes to alien.

On October 17^th 2015, unusual data from the Kepler Space Telescope on a star 1,400 light years away in the Constellation Cygnus named KIC 8462852 created quite a stir in the astronomy community as reported in the article “The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy”, published OCT 13, 2015 by Ross Andersen, The Atlantic.

The strange data was discovered by Yale Post-Doctoral student Tabetha Boyajian with the help of the Planet Hunters, basically “citizen scientists” who examine Kepler Space Telescope data and other data on their computers. Humans are better at spotting patterns in data and until AI (Artificial Intelligence) is up to snuff, this is the best way to analyze the tons of data coming out of many of the Optical and Radio Telescopes all around the world.

What Tabetha Boyajian and Planet Hunters discovered and published on September 11^th 2015 on the Cornell University Library website under Astrophysical Journal Letters entitled “Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 - Where's the Flux?” is shaking up the Astronomy community worldwide.

it appears that they may have possibly discovered signs of intelligent life around another star, as there's talk of these object being Dyson spheres as reported in the article “The story behind 'alien megastructures' scientists may have found (but probably didn't)”, published October 17, 2015 by Eric Mack, CNET News.

But after years of searching, is this finally evidence of Alien life in the Universe? Or is there another logical explanation?

Yale Post-Doc Tabetha Boyajian and KIC 8462852 - Why everybody is thinking these are Dyson Spheres

Normally, when a planet passes between the Kepler Space Telescope and its star, it causes a predictable dip in luminosity as explained in my blog article entitled “University of Montreal directly images exoplanet GU Psc b using Infrared - 100 Light Year Barrier no longer an issue as Infrared Tun Up” that gives an idea of not only the period of revolution, the size of the planet but also to some extent the composition of the planet's atmosphere.

Well strangely enough, the star KIC 8462852, an F-type main-sequence star, was spotted by amateur planet hunters as having strange dips in its luminosity.

It seemed to be surrounded by a swarm of objects flying in a tight formation, like a cloud of comets or the gas from nebulae or accretion disk from which planets form as described in my blog article entitled “How the University of Arizona discovered proto-planet LkCa 15b”. 

However, for a star this young, it would be glowing in infrared radiation like that produced from H-alpha photons in an accretion disk around a star. This was not the case, as it did not glow with any telltale radiation.

Also its rate of spin, based on tracking sunspots on the surface of KIC 8462852 suggest that it’s spinning at a rate of once every 24 hours, suggesting something is removing material from the star’s mass thereby accelerating its spin.

So being as KIC 8462852 is definately an older star, the material, if it was coming from the star, should have being pulled into the star by gravity over the millions of years of the star existence.

The fact that these multiple object blocking light from the KIC 8462852 to the Kepler Space Telescope suggests that it must have been there more recently, say in the last 10,000 years, as its orbit had not decayed.

Albeit Mrs. Tabetha Boyajian published paper does not suggest anything strange, she did offer the following possible explanation for this anomaly:

1.      Instrument defects

2.      Asteroid belt remnants

3.      Leftover from planetary collisions

However, it was really left up to Penn State University Astronomer, Dr. Jason Wright, who upon looking upon the data, proclaimed it to be alien megastructures, quote: “When [Boyajian] showed me the data, I was fascinated by how crazy it looked,” Wright told me. “Aliens should always be the very last hypothesis you consider, but this looked like something you would expect an alien civilization to build.”

Specifically, if could be a set of Dyson's Sphere orbiting the star, which would explain the unusual dimming of this fairly old F-type main-sequence star KIC 8462852.

So what is a Dyson Sphere?

Dyson Sphere Explained - Boyajian, Wright and Seimion requesting Radio telescope time for a closer look

A Dyson Sphere is basically a large sphere or array of solar panels built around a fusion reactor core or a mini brown or red dwarf as described in the article “What is a Dyson sphere?”, published October 30 2015, EarthSky.

 

Proposed by Dr. Freeman J. Dyson in a thought experiment in 1960, he published his idea in a two-page paper in the Journal Science was titled “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation”. 

The idea is that the Dyson Sphere would be built by a Type 2 or Type 3 super civilization that was in need of more power than the planet could provide. So they'd encase a red or brown dwarf inside a Dyson Sphere to power an array of solar panels or other technology to convert the power to usable electricity. The aliens could potentially be living either on the surface of the Dyson Sphere, if the gravity from its rotation is sufficient or on the inside in covered city dwellings.

Alternatively, they could have lasers of Microwaves beam the energy own to the planet surface, powering their planet for a millennia and even use the focused beam or radiating for space travel via solar sails as described in my blog article entitled “The Planetary Society LightSail Cubesat deploys Solar Sail – Why Surfing the Solar Wind is now on @NASA agenda as Jamaica can launch Solar Satellite too”.

Please note that a Dyson Sphere hypothesis is a hypothesis of last resort, as it may be some natural phenomenon that hasn't yet been encountered by scientists. However, Mrs. Tabetha Boyajian seems optimistic that it might prove to be a fleet of solar collectors floating around the star, possibly the early stages of the construction of a full Dyson Sphere.

Along with Astronomer Jason Wright and Director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, Andrew Siemion, they're floating a proposal to point a massive radio dish at KIC 8462852 to see if it emits radio wave signals that can be interpreted as being signs of intelligent life.

If they get something interesting on Radio in, they would have the bargaining power to request time on the VLA (Very Large Array) in New Mexico, to quote Astronomer Jason Wright, quote: “If we saw something exciting, we could ask the director for special allotted time on the VLA. And in that case, we’d be asking to go on right away”

But there is more to the star KIC 8462852 than meets the eye.

KIC 8462852 has been dimming for 100 years - Dr Bradley E. Schaefer data means Dyson Spheres still a possibility

Turns out that the F-type main-sequence star KIC 8462852 has been getting dimmer between 1890 and 1989.

This was discovered recently by Professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Louisiana State University Dr Bradley E. Schaefer, after doping through some 500,000 old photographic plates stored in Harvard University's archive as reported in the article “Weird star system scientists have been checking for aliens just got weirder”, published January 15, 2016 by Eric Mack, CNET News.

He points out in the paper submitted by Dr Bradley E. Schaefer to Astrophysical Journal Letters on January 13^th 2016 titled  “KIC 8462852 Faded at an Average Rate of 0.165+-0.013 Magnitudes Per Century From 1890 To 1989” that the light from the star KIC 8462852 has been fading over the 100 years that it was being observed.

This is unusual in itself, as stars tend to get brighter as they age before finally going out in a nova or supernova explosion to quote Dr Bradley E. Schaefer: “The KIC 8462852 light curve from 1890 to 1989 shows a highly significant secular trend in fading over 100 years, with this being completely unprecedented for any F-type main sequence star. Such stars should be very stable in brightness, with evolution making for changes only on time scales of many millions of years”.

This mean that any hypothesis that the unusual dimming is due to comets is now completely false as declared in the article “Comets can’t explain weird ‘alien megastructure’ star after all”, published 15 January 2016, New Scientist.

Or worse, our alien friends Dyson Sphere may possibly be feeding off the F-type main-sequence star KIC 8462852 to power their Dyson Sphere, something fairly easy for a Type 2 or Type 3 civilization to accomplish. This would explain why the star is spinning so rapidly, as feeding off the material from the star would make it smaller and thus accelerate it spin and make it dimmer in the process.

Hopefully, by February 2016, Astronomer Jason Wright and Director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, Andrew Siemion can get to check this out with a Radio Telescope. If this turns out to be Dyson Spheres and signs of intelligent life, humanity would be on the cusp of the biggest discover since the Kepler Space Telescope began finding planets.

Here’s the link:

Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 - Where's the Flux?

Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation

KIC 8462852 Faded at an Average Rate of 0.165+-0.013 Magnitudes Per Century From 1890 To 1989