Washington, Jan 4 (PTI) The Tabby's star - the mostmysterious star in the universe - dims and brightens in anunusual manner due dust particles, say scientists who havedebunked the theory that the cosmic body is being orbited byan alien megastructure.
KIC 8462852, or "Tabby's Star," is about 50 per centbigger and 1,000 degrees hotter than the Sun. It is more than1,000 light years away.
However, it has been inexplicably dimming and brighteningsporadically like no other. Several theories abound to explainthe star's unusual light patterns including an alienmegastructure orbiting the star.
"Dust is most likely the reason why the star's lightappears to dim and brighten. The new data shows that differentcolours of light are being blocked at different intensities,"said Tabetha Boyajian, professor at the Louisiana StateUniversity in the US.
"Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the staris not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alienmegastructure," said Boyajian.
The mystery of Tabby's Star is so compelling that morethan 1,700 people donated over USD 100,000 through acrowdfunding campaign in support of dedicated ground-basedtelescope time to observe and gather more data on the starthrough a network of telescopes around the world.
Scientists closely observed the star through the LasCumbres Observatory from March 2016 to December 2017.
Beginning in May 2017 there were four distinct episodeswhen the star's light dipped. Supporters from the crowdfundingcampaign nominated and voted to name these episodes.
The first two dips were named Elsie and Celeste. The lasttwo were named after ancient lost cities - Scotland's ScaraBrae and Cambodia's Angkor.
In many ways what is happening with the star is likethese lost cities, researchers wrote in the study publishedThe Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"They're ancient; we are watching things that happenedmore than 1,000 years ago. They're almost certainly caused bysomething ordinary, at least on a cosmic scale," researcherssaid.
Citizen scientists, the Planet Hunters, sifting throughmassive amounts of data from the NASA Kepler mission were theones to detect the star's unusual behaviour in the firstplace. PTI MHN SARMHN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.