Back in October , Yale astronomer Tabetha Boyajian and a group of citizen scientist co - authors published an article abouttheir unusual findingswhile observing the star KIC 8462852 . The data about the flitter star precede to some middling spectacular theories , including one by Penn State astronomer Jason Wright , whose explanation involved a Dyson Sphere — a case of conjectural megastructure that could in theory harness zip from the distant genius . concord to a new written report by scientists from SETI ( Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ) published inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters , there is no grounds to patronage that .
The hypothesis of an alien megastructure around KIC 8462852 is speedily crumbling apart , " SETI International chairperson Douglas Vakoch read in astatement . ( They ’re not subtle with this criticism ; the illustration the organization released to accompany its jam command , shown above , is " an artist ’s theatrical of a crumble Dyson arena orbiting KIC 8462852 . " )
Scientists at the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama used a 0.5 - m Newtonian telescope to seek to detect intentional optical maser pulses in the visible spectrum toward Earth . They found none . They speculate that the strange phenomenon observed by Boyajian and her team , in which at one point in time the champion dimmed by a walloping 22 percent ( even a major planet the sizing of Jupiter go through in front of a genius causes only a 1 percent dip ) , was make by fragments from a comet in a extremely elliptical orbit around the star .
Depending on how you palpate about aliens send out message to this major planet and whether or not Dyson Spheres can even survive — they’re stillonly theoretically possible — this could be perceived as good or tough news .
Regardless , scientist think that it is of import to have a architectural plan in shoes for the time to come . " If some day we really detect a signaling from an extraterrestrial civilization,“Vakoch said , " we want to be quick to be up at observatories around the existence , as quickly as potential . "
