KIC 8462852 Observations |
KIC 8462852 Observations |
Oct 15 2015, 04:45 PM
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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. |
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Jan 29 2016, 09:11 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2346 Joined: 7-December 12 Member No.: 6780 |
Since intrinsic causes are considered unikely, as well as large numbers of large comets, but a single unknown cause is supposed in Schaefer's initial paper, I'm wondering whether kind of a Bok globule moving in front of the star, or interacting with the star, could catch the observations. Interaction might cause some detectable wobble, and is less likely due to lack of an infrared signature.
To explain lack of absorption and emission lines, the presumed globule should have been swept free of gas for some reason. So, kind of an almost gas-free Bok globule moving into the line of sight could be a construct explaining the observation. Observation of visually close-by background stars might help to discern this kind of scenarios. |
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