Astronomers say they have discovered a star that may be orbited by giant alien 'megastructures'

[Squid Surprise]

Cooley is right about scientists not being able to accurately age stars - see my previous link (or google for even more evidence).... but I don't think that is relevant for this conversation anyways... scientists simply observed the star dimming over a far larger period than normal - which they have plenty of evidence for...

Despite the misleading topic of this article, noone is really claiming aliens!! The hypothesis was that it was comets.... but noone really knows what they are!!

 

[davislane1]

Click-bait title, click-bait article. Scientists found an anomaly within an extremely limited dataset. That's... it, really.

 

[p51d007]

Doubtful, BUT if it IS true, LEAVE IT ALONE! Didn't you ever see the movies
Independence day or Battleship???

 

[BrianMontanye]

I love these *****ic comments..

The *****ic comment is thinking we can accurately say how old an object is that is older than recorded history.

You need to quit the bath salts bud.

 

[DelJo63]

Hal to Dave - - "do you see that monolith?"

 

[wiyosaya]

Could it instead be a dense asteroid field around the star?

Scientists say the light fluctuations aren’t caused by a planet, and while they could be caused by a mass of matter in tight formation, KIC 8462852 is too old to be surrounded by the rings of debris that tend to circle around younger stars.

We do have instances in our own planetary neighborhood of "matter in tight formation" in the form of some of the rings around other planets. If I am not mistaken, it is either Neptune or Uranus that have such rings where the density of the matter is uneven and have areas in the ring where the matter is in tight formation. Even in the rings of Saturn, the "spokes" are caused by density variations of the particles that form the rings, and though it is on a much smaller time scale, it does cause the same kind of variations in light intensity over time. Perhaps what is needed is for Kepler to observe the particular star for a longer period of time to see if there is truly any regularity to the patterns they observed.

As I see it, for the astronomer to provide a quote like that is very unscientific and, perhaps, shows the emotional excitement of an astronomer discovering the unexpected. Personally, I would have preferred that the scientist had prefaced what was said with something along the lines of "According to current scientific understanding...". We do not know what it is at this point. I am not discounting the possibility that it was created by an intelligent, highly advanced civilization, but it could also be another case similar to the "Face On Mars." People still think that NASA covered up something there, but the Occam's Razor explanation is that when the "Face On Mars" was first observed, it was observed with a low-resolution camera. Then, on examination with high-resolution cameras, it turned out to be a natural formation.

Astronomers do tend to think something is impossible and then find instances of such in the universe. In particular, I believe that astronomers once thought that it was impossible for planets to exist in trinary star systems. Our current understanding is that planets can exist in trinary star systems because we believe that we have observed such systems in our galaxy.

Our theories of solar system formation and evolution are just that, theories. Personally, I think it is far too early to discount that it might be a natural formation.

 

[emmzo]

Ancient aliens? OMG the guy with the funny hair is going to tell us all about it.

 

[wiyosaya]

Stars don't flicker.

Cephid Variable

 

[captaincranky]

...[ ]....Astronomers do tend to think something is impossible and then find instances of such in the universe. In particular, I believe that astronomers once thought that it was impossible for planets to exist in trinary star systems. Our current understanding is that planets can exist in trinary star systems because we believe that we have observed such systems in our galaxy.

The whole, "evidence of civilizations more advanced than ours" thing, to me, is just a plea for attention and more importantly funding. The whole idea brings lot and lots more interest than, "a different kind of space debris".

Our theories of solar system formation and evolution are just that, theories. Personally, I think it is far too early to discount that it might be a natural formation.

Wow, you scared me there for a second. For me, mentioning "evolution", brings about a simple word association with "creationism". Which scares the hell out of me, as people want to teach that nonsense and superstition in our schools.

Although, perhaps as late as the 8th or 9th day, God created aliens who built stuff around stars we can barely see with a telescope, ya never know..

 

[yRaz]

Cephid Variable

Variable =/= flicker

 

[cartera]

Doubtful, BUT if it IS true, LEAVE IT ALONE! Didn't you ever see the movies
Independence day or Battleship???

I hope we have some horrendous acting from Rihanna and 'who knows who' to save us lol

 

[red1776]

Well, pardon my cynicism but, the whole thing kind of smacks of an effort to assist with continued and/or increased funding. The SETI radio telescope search has turned up zip in decades of trying. Backers for that project have to be looking at it as a money pit. BUT, if they suddenly got a "message from an alien intelligence", that would be a great wallet opening breakthrough!

yes indeed, they need themselves another 'WOW' signal.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Wow_signal.jpg/300px-Wow_signal.jpg

 

[Schwantz Duker]

Perhaps it's a Mega-JeBus convoy saving the universe

 

[captaincranky]

Perhaps it's a Mega-JeBus convoy saving the universe

Being led by the Easter Bunny, no doubt.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Look closer, that is Thor smashing the Bifröst Bridge.

 

[captaincranky]

Look closer, that is Thor smashing the Bifröst Bridge.

That still doesn't explain the bunny ears. Did he steal them from the waitress at the Asgard Playboy Club?

 

[cliffordcooley]

Could have. You know how those God's are. They want everything!

 

[captaincranky]

They most likely fell off her while she and Thor were playing, "see if you can pick up my hammer".

 

[wiyosaya]

Variable =/= flicker

As you wish, my friend. Cepheids are only one class of variable star that some might consider flickering stars.

 

[wiyosaya]

The whole, "evidence of civilizations more advanced than ours" thing, to me, is just a plea for attention and more importantly funding. The whole idea brings lot and lots more interest than, "a different kind of space debris".

Due to public ridicule, the bright bulbs in congress in the US put an end to public funding of SETI. SETI is primarily funded by non-governmental organizations now. Your tax dollars are safe.

Wow, you scared me there for a second. For me, mentioning "evolution", brings about a simple word association with "creationism". Which scares the hell out of me, as people want to teach that nonsense and superstition in our schools.

Must be a difficult life. Of course, when someone mentions creationism and how the age of the Earth is roughly 5,000 years, you might try pointing them to the description of Uranium-lead dating. One problem with that, though, is that explanation would probably go well over their heads.

Although, perhaps as late as the 8th or 9th day, God created aliens who built stuff around stars we can barely see with a telescope, ya never know..

It was that late in the process? What did God do, sleep on the 7th day?

 

[yRaz]

As you wish, my friend. Cepheids are only one class of variable star that some might consider flickering stars.

what about pulsars?

 

[captaincranky]

Due to public ridicule, the bright bulbs in congress in the US put an end to public funding of SETI. SETI is primarily funded by non-governmental organizations now. Your tax dollars are safe.

I have a different issue. I worry that Social Secfurity will go broke.

Must be a difficult life. Of course, when someone mentions creationism and how the age of the Earth is roughly 5,000 years, you might try pointing them to the description of Uranium-lead dating. One problem with that, though, is that explanation would probably go well over their heads.

Junk science, concocted by heathens as blasphemy against gawd almighty.

It was that late in the process? What did God do, sleep on the 7th day?

Actually that was a bit of poetic license. In lieu of going into negative numbers. ("The first day, minus 1, or "the day before the first day", which for all intents is an oxymoron). So, the 8th or 9th day became almost obligatory for reaching even the most zealous of creationists. I'm not saying they won't dispute it. It just happens to be in the only time frame reference which is accessible to them.

In any case, there is an ongoing dispute as to when "the 7th day", actually is. The Hebrew faith places it on a Saturday, while Christians place it on Sunday. In spite of having a rather unsuccessful attempt made at turning me into a Christian, Sunday still makes a lot more sense to me in the grand scheme of things.

God went out partying his infinitely vast brain to a state of non compus mentus hiatus, on Saturday night. An "endless void without firmament", as it were. Thus, Sunday was spent nursing a truly intergalactic scale hangover, and watching his favorite team(s) lose at football. (I say teams because as we all know, God doesn't play favorites). The weak ones fail, and that unfortunately gets blamed, lock, stock, and barrel, on Charles Darwin..

On the 8th day, God started back in, hoping to remedy what the human race lacked in avarice, greed, imperialistic tendencies, and a proclivity for buying shoddy construction materials of "Vinnie two fingers", by creating beings more willing and capable than Homo Sapiens, at putting massively greater amounts of space junk in orbit around the heavenly object of their choosing.