Most Mysterious Star In The Galaxy Becomes More Mystical Than Thought

Astronomers discovered this unexplained dimming event of a star known as KIC 8462852 in the constellation Cygnus. It was captured by NASA's Kepler space telescope and continues to be a mystery. A recent study revealed that the star is displaying more perplexing event that puzzles the astronomers.

The study was printed in The Astrophysical Journal. It was led by Josh Simon from Carnegie Institution for Science and Ben Montet from Caltech and other colleagues. They found that besides the strange dimming, the star also dwindled gradually during the four years it was observed by Kepler.

Science Daily reports that the brightness of the star declined by 14 percent from 1890 to 1989. The team examined its behavior in a series of Kepler calibration images, which had not been used for scientific measurements before. Simon explained that the data could clarify or refute the star's long-term fading, and hopefully explain the cause of the extraordinary dimming events of the star.

KIC 8462852 or also known as Tabby's Star has unusual light fluctuations. In 2015, the astronomers and scientists described the event and gave possible interpretations using the data gathered by the Kepler space telescope. There were many hypotheses explaining the dimming events of the star. On the other hand, none have fully explained its mysterious and irregular dimming.

In the new study, Simon and Montet discovered that the mystic star dimmed by almost 1 percent then dropped by 2 percent over just six months and remained at that level for the final sixth months of the mission. Then, they compared it with other stars observed by Kepler. Nothing among the stars exhibited the same dimming event in just six months or a total change in brightness of 3 percent.

Montet said that the steady brightness change in KIC 8462852 is pretty astounding. He further said that their highly precise measurements over four years demonstrate that the star really is getting fainter with time. He continued that it is unprecedented for this type of star to slowly fade for years and they don't see anything else like it in the Kepler data.

Simon added that the star's features are strange, both slowly dimming for almost three years and then suddenly getting fainter much more rapidly. The astronomers and scientists could not come up with explanation with its dimming events and its declining gradually. Simon and Montet's proposal for its explanation could be due to a collision or break up of a planet or comet in the star's system, which produce short-term cloud of dust and debris that blocks some starlight. On the other hand, this wouldn't explain the longer-term dimming observed on its first three years of Kepler and implied by measurements of the star way back in the nineteenth century.