Extraterrestrial intelligence?

[Jehanne]

It's a promising lead as any:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.01316v1.pdf

Note the text from the preamble:

No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve.

[Excited Penguin]

https://www.newscientist.com/article/210...tronomers/

What about that advanced alien megastructure? “Once you’re invoking arbitrary advanced aliens doing something with technology far beyond ours, then there isn’t very much that can’t be explained,” says Simon. “But we don’t really want to resort to that until we exhaust all of the possible natural explanations we can think of.”

Even Wright, the astronomer who postulated the alien megastructure in the first place, admits that it’s a last resort.

In the meantime, astronomers will continue to monitor the star. A successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this year raised over $100,000, allowing astronomers to secure time at the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, where they can observe the star for a year.

The hope is that Tabby’s star will soon drastically dim and they will be able to swing different ground-based and space-based observatories towards it. Catching a transit in as many wavelengths as possible should help pin down what is interfering with the star – be it a swarm of comets, an alien megastructure, or something else entirely.

[Jehanne]

Wasn't it Sir Arthur Doyle somebody who said, "Once you eliminate the impossible..."

Agreed, as with creationism and theistic arguments, just because there is no natural explanation at present does not mean that one does not exist.  But, what observational evidence can be brought to bear on this scientific question?

[Little lunch]

It's a promising lead as any:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.01316v1.pdf

Note the text from the preamble:

No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve.

Can you dumb it down a little ?

[Excited Penguin]

Wasn't it Sir Arthur Doyle somebody who said, "Once you eliminate the impossible..."

Agreed, as with creationism and theistic arguments, just because there is no natural explanation at present does not mean that one does not exist.  But, what observational evidence can be brought to bear on this scientific question?

My thinking is, we should wait for more data before jumping to conclusions.

And refer to the experts, of course.

[Excited Penguin]

It's a promising lead as any:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.01316v1.pdf

Note the text from the preamble:

Can you dumb it down a little ?

See the article I linked to above. You can also google KIC 8462852.

[Jehanne]

It's a promising lead as any:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.01316v1.pdf

Note the text from the preamble:

Can you dumb it down a little ?

I did read the paper, but basically, no astronomer or astrophysicist can explain the light curves and all of the other observational data, at least using naturalistic models.  In fact, KIC 8462852 is unique among the 150K stars that Kepler has studied so far.

[Jehanne]

Wasn't it Sir Arthur Doyle somebody who said, "Once you eliminate the impossible..."

Agreed, as with creationism and theistic arguments, just because there is no natural explanation at present does not mean that one does not exist.  But, what observational evidence can be brought to bear on this scientific question?

My thinking is, we should wait for more data before jumping to conclusions.

And refer to the experts, of course.

Oh, I agree, absolutely.  KIC 8462852, in my opinion, draws some nice parallels with creationism, ID, and theism, in general, in that professional scientists are working to gather more data, make more observations, etc.  It seems that the standard "Extraordinary claims require..." is applying here.

[Anomalocaris]

It's a promising lead as any:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1608.01316v1.pdf

Note the text from the preamble:

No known or proposed stellar phenomena can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve.

Wait a while.

[downbeatplumb]

Its a "dark somethings" fault.
That seems to be the go to phrase for unexplained cosmic tings at the moment.