KIC 8462852 Boyajian's Star Update 09/10/17

TL;DR

Boyajian's star is experiencing a significant dip in brightness that may be caused by massive objects or structures passing in front of it.

Transcript

This is an update in my continuing coverage of KIC 8462852, or Boyajian’s star for September 10, 2017. Check out the dedicated playlist for this enigmatic star on this channel for the back story. First, the emergent news. The star has been dipping regularly over the last few months, but now we have something different happening. As of a few nights ... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤩 Boyajian's star is currently experiencing a major dip in brightness, indicating the presence of massive objects or structures.
• 🪐 The dips could be caused by exocomets passing in front of the star or a planet with a massive ring system.
• 🙂 Multiple observatories are monitoring the star's light curves in real-time, providing valuable data for research.
• ⌛ The funding for observing time on these telescopes was originally crowd sourced on Kickstarter.
• 🤩 Further study and the search for similar phenomena in other stars are necessary to understand the cause of Boyajian's star's behavior.
• 👽 The possibility of alien-related explanations, including SETI, cannot be ruled out but come with their own problems.
• 🤩 Scientists may need to consider alternative explanations if none of the existing hypotheses adequately explain the star's behavior.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is happening to Boyajian's star?

Boyajian's star is currently experiencing a major dip in brightness, which is unusual and intriguing for scientists studying it.

Q: What are the possible explanations for this major dip?

One possibility is the passage of massive objects, such as exocomets or a planet with a massive ring system, in front of the star. Another possibility is some unknown phenomenon.

Q: Why are major dimming events interesting?

Major dimming events require massive objects or structures to block that amount of light, making them significant and deserving of further study.

Q: Are there any problems with the existing explanations?

Both the exocomets and planetary ring hypotheses have potential issues, such as the required number of orchestrated comets or the stability of a planetary ring system.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Boyajian's star has been steadily dimming over the past few months but is now on its way to a major dipping event.

• These major dimming events are intriguing because they require massive objects to block that amount of light.

• A correlation between features in the star's light curve suggests the passage of exocomets or a planet with a massive ring system.