One of the biggest astronomical mysteries of last winter was the curious behavior of KIC 8462852 , a star whose light magnetic dip in brightness in a way that defies current explanation . This singular behaviour led to all fashion of speculation , from comets toalien megastructures .
The hotshot was discovered by the Kepler Mission and a citizen science mathematical group calledPlanet Hunter , who recognize the mysterious light fluctuations in their hunt for potential planets . Out of 150,000 stars observed by Kepler , only KIC 8462852 has point this behavior .
Several theories have been put forward on what could be generating the obscurations : multiple starring companions , planets with declamatory ring , asteroid swath , and comet . However , what pique media attention was the hypnotism that analien megastructurewas orb the sensation . While we ’re fairly sure it ’s not alien , still themystery stay .
The relative magnetic flux of the stars over four twelvemonth of observation . If a major planet was orbiting the headliner , the fluxion would only drop a few percent and reoccur at regular interval . Boyajian et al .
For this reason , the science team behind the find has launched aKickstartercampaign . They aim to raise enough money to secure observing time on a global net of scope so as to produce continuous monitoring of KIC 8462852 .
From the Kepler observations , we know that the object – often call the " WTF Star " ( after the name of the paper , " Where ’s the flux ? " ) – has dip in light that encounter at random intervals . For this reason , the team plan to keep a changeless eye on it and expand its observations to unlike wavelength .
All the datum will be processed in tangible time , which will allow the team to quickly stick out in with more instrument and hopefully find out what is actually happening around the most mysterious asterisk in the Milky Way .
