Space
NASA May Have Discovered an Alien Civilization Around a Strange Star
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Oct 15, 2015 08:48 AM EDT
Have we finally detected intelligent alien life? That may be the case, thanks to Kepler. The instrument has made some unusual findings when it comes to a mysterious star between the constellations Cygna and Lyra.
The Kepler Space Telescope is famous for its ability to locate distant exoplanets. It does so by measuring planetary transits. Essentially, the telescope looks at stars in distant galaxies and sees when their light dims. This dimming of light actually indicates that a planet is passing in front of the star.
"We'd never seen anything like this star," said Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale, in an interview with The Atlantic. It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft but everything checked out."
Normally the shape of an exoplanet isn't particularly surprising because it's round. However, researchers have now spotted a star with an exoplanet that's a bit unusual.
The star is named KIC 8462852, and has a strange transit signal. During one transit, brightness dropped 15 percent while during another transit, the brightness dropped by 22 percent. In order to cause such dips in brightness, the transiting objects must be huge.
What's more interesting is that no natural reasons seem to explain the star's flux. Instead, it's possible that something artificial could be transiting the star; in other words, it could, potentially, be signs of intelligent alien life.
This doesn't mean that aliens are the hard and fast explanation, though. It could be that there is some other reason for the strange transit. However, researchers are currently looking into whether or not these transits could be explained by artificial structures around the star.
The findings are published online.
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First Posted: Oct 15, 2015 08:48 AM EDT
Have we finally detected intelligent alien life? That may be the case, thanks to Kepler. The instrument has made some unusual findings when it comes to a mysterious star between the constellations Cygna and Lyra.
The Kepler Space Telescope is famous for its ability to locate distant exoplanets. It does so by measuring planetary transits. Essentially, the telescope looks at stars in distant galaxies and sees when their light dims. This dimming of light actually indicates that a planet is passing in front of the star.
"We'd never seen anything like this star," said Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale, in an interview with The Atlantic. It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft but everything checked out."
Normally the shape of an exoplanet isn't particularly surprising because it's round. However, researchers have now spotted a star with an exoplanet that's a bit unusual.
The star is named KIC 8462852, and has a strange transit signal. During one transit, brightness dropped 15 percent while during another transit, the brightness dropped by 22 percent. In order to cause such dips in brightness, the transiting objects must be huge.
What's more interesting is that no natural reasons seem to explain the star's flux. Instead, it's possible that something artificial could be transiting the star; in other words, it could, potentially, be signs of intelligent alien life.
This doesn't mean that aliens are the hard and fast explanation, though. It could be that there is some other reason for the strange transit. However, researchers are currently looking into whether or not these transits could be explained by artificial structures around the star.
The findings are published online.
Related Stories
Journey to Mars: Detour to the Moon is the Best Way to Travel to the Red Planet
NASA Cassini Spacecraft Zooms in on Saturn's Moon Enceladus Today (VIDEO)
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone