Has the Kepler Space Telescope discovered an alien megastructure?

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope – has detected something that can’t be explained – and some are suggesting it has alien origins. Image Credit: NASA The recent developments in exoplanet research has led to the discovery of hundreds of planets in distant star systems. When this area of research first arose, astronomers believed they would only find exoplanets numbering in the dozens in other star systems. One of these in particular has captured the imagination of the public. This is because it has stymied scientists’ efforts to explain it – leading to public speculation of an alien “megastructure.” Within the Cygnus and Lyrae constellations, researchers have discovered something that they simply don’t understand – this lack of clarity comes from mysterious dips in data from star KIC 8462852. At present, scientists don’t understand what the data from Kepler is actually telling them. Image Credit: NASA Researchers working on the Planet Hunters project used this method to find exoplanets, but ended up discovering an anomaly in their data between the Cygnus and Lyrae constellations on star KIC 8462852. One of the methods used to find exoplanets is called the transit method. Astronomers wait for the object to move across a star and then they measure the luminosity of the star over a period of time. When the object transits the star there would be a dip in the amount of brightness, and this would let astronomers know that a planet or object is orbiting that star. Normally, exoplanets show a repeatable and somewhat predictable dip pattern using the transit method which corresponds with their orbit around the star. In the case of KIC 8462852 however, the luminosity dips are periodic and cause the star to dim by 22 percent which is a significant drop for a transiting object. These facts are […]

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