KIC 8462852 Observations |
KIC 8462852 Observations |
Oct 15 2015, 04:45 PM
Post
#1
|
|
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
Kepler found one very, very strange case:
http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive...-galaxy/410023/ In a nutshell, while Kepler was observing it, the star (larger and brighter than the Sun) exhibited four dimming events that took place at irregular intervals, blocked a lot more light than a Jupiter-sized planet would block, and had a "shape" that varied in all four cases and did not resemble a planet. This case is attracting some wild speculation… in fact, it is seemingly certain that something wild must be going on; it's just a matter of which wild scenario is the correct one. If I had to throw my hat in the ring, I'd guess that a distant collision and breakup has placed big swarms of matter into a very long-period orbit. But there's no hypothesis that's been offered that doesn't seem problematic. |
|
|
Jan 26 2016, 11:25 PM
Post
#2
|
|
Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 68 Joined: 27-March 15 Member No.: 7426 |
I wonder if trillions of comets, especially after colliding and reducing themselves to bits, wouldn't make for a uniform debris field around a star, rather than one comprised of distinct clumps of material. The latter is what seems to be present at KIC 8462852.
I also wonder if perturbations of comets by Neptune-mass planets would be great enough over a single century, so as to account for a fairly steady dimming of the star's light by about one fifth. |
|
|
Jan 27 2016, 12:21 AM
Post
#3
|
|
Member Group: Members Posts: 684 Joined: 24-July 15 Member No.: 7619 |
I wonder if trillions of comets, especially after colliding and reducing themselves to bits, wouldn't make for a uniform debris field around a star, rather than one comprised of distinct clumps of material. The latter is what seems to be present at KIC 8462852. I also wonder if perturbations of comets by Neptune-mass planets would be great enough over a single century, so as to account for a fairly steady dimming of the star's light by about one fifth. That's the nice thing about power laws, they provide a baseline of many small events, and the occasional whopper.. As for exo-kuiper belt objects smacking rocky planets, we think we've seen comet storms in other star systems that result in big hits on inner solar system planets. That system, Eta Corvi has an interesting alignment, we see two bands of dust- hot and cold. The hot band at 3 AU is interpreted as a transient result of a single strike from a kuiper belt sized object hitting a rocky planet. The cold band around 150 AU is interpreted as a long term result of kuiper belt collisions as a result of an outer planet migrating through that area. |
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 9th June 2024 - 03:45 AM |
RULES AND GUIDELINES Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting. IMAGE COPYRIGHT |
OPINIONS AND MODERATION Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators. |
SUPPORT THE FORUM Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member. |