No alien megastructure around mysterious 'Tabby's star', analysis shows
by Stuart Clark from on (#3C9VD)
Stand down space cadets: there is (sadly) no alien megastructure around star KIC 8462852, also known as Tabby's star
As if a divisive Star Wars film wasn't bad news enough this Christmas, now an analysis by more than 200 astronomers has been published that shows the mysterious dimming of star KIC 8462852 is not being produced by an alien megastructure.
The evidence points most strongly to a giant cloud of dust occasionally obscuring the star. The cloud was most possibly produced by the collision of two comets or the break-up of a single one. Another option is that the star itself is undergoing some sort of internal convulsion that astronomers have never seen before.
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