Watch: The star that may be hosting an alien megastructure

KIC 8462852 aka Tabby’s star, about 1300 light years away from us, is the “most mysterious star in the universe”.  Its odd light signature was first noticed in 2011, then in 2013 and now on 19 May.

Scientists have identified it as an F type main sequence star, very similar to the Sun. Stars seem to twinkle because the atmosphere displaces their light. What makes the star in question special is its strange variations in brightness that have so far gone without any definitive explanation. NASA’s Kepler telescope showed that the star was dimming unusually indicating several overlapping instances of multiple massive objects passing in front of the star.

While many theories have been proposed, the most exciting one so far suggests the existence of an alien megastructure created by an extraterrestrial civilisation. This theory is in consistency with the Dyson Sphere hypothesis which proposes that the massive structure has been created and put out to gather solar power from stars as powerful as Tabby’s Star.

The concept was developed by scientist Freeman Dyson in 1960 as a part of a study on the increasing human need for energy. His study was based on the idea that it would come to point where solar power collecting panels would one day become big enough to enclose the entire Sun, thus blocking out the light that it emits. It is this theory that is being applied to the observations of Tabby’s Star.

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”, Carl Sagan once said. No such evidence has been found to support this sensational theory yet.