Tag Archive for 'KIC 8462852'

An artist’s impression of the KIC 8462852 binary system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Milky Way’s ‘Most Mysterious Star’ Has a Companion

Feb 2, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

KIC 8462852, a mysteriously dimming star located about 1,480 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus, is, in fact, a binary stellar system, made...

Artist’s illustration showing a massive exoplanet falling into its host star -- one of the possible explanations for the strange dimming of KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS.

Melting Exomoon May Explain Long-Term Dimming of Milky Way’s ‘Most-Mysterious Star’

Sep 18, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists from Columbia University proposes that the strange long-term dimming of the KIC 8462852 star (also known as Tabby’s star or...

An artist’s impression of the gas giant Kepler 1625b with its large moon, Kepler 1625b-i; the pair has a similar mass and radius ratio to the Earth-Moon system but scaled up by a factor of 11. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Large Moons around Extrasolar Gas Giants Could Become ‘Ploonets’

Jul 18, 2019 by News Staff

Ploonets — large regular moons ejected from orbits around close-in gas giant exoplanets — could explain many baffling astronomical observations,...

‘Alien Megastructure’ Not the Cause of KIC 8462852’s Dimming

Jan 4, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers are one step closer to solving the mystery behind KIC 8462852, a main-sequence F-type star located in the constellation Cygnus, about 1,480...

This illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mysterious Long-Term Dimming of KIC 8462852 May Be Caused by Dust, Astronomers Say

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

University of Arizona astronomer Huan Meng and co-authors have found the long-term dimming of KIC 8462852 — a main-sequence F-type star located in...

Mysterious Star KIC 8462852 Continues to Baffle Astronomers

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

A star about 1,480 light-years from Earth called KIC 8462852 has been a fascinating mystery since its discovery was made public in September 2015. Astronomers...

Our Sun is the most familiar example of a main-sequence star. Image credit: NASA.

Mysterious Star KIC 8462852 is Near a Continuous Phase Transition, Astronomers Say

Dec 29, 2016 by News Staff

A new study by astronomers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, links the unexplained changes...

Planets form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, called protoplanets. Sometimes the colliding bodies are ground to dust, and sometimes they stick together to ultimately form larger, mature planets. This artist’s conception shows one such smash-up. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mystery of KIC 8462852 Deepens

Oct 5, 2016 by News Staff

Planets form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, called protoplanets. Sometimes the colliding bodies are ground to dust, and...

This illustration shows KIC 8462852 behind a shattered comet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

KIC 8462852: New Study Supports Natural Causes to Explain Behavior of Unusual Star

May 10, 2016 by News Staff

Results of a new study in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org preprint) make it far less likely that KIC 8462852 is the home star of an advanced alien...

Unusual Star KIC 8462852 Likely Swarmed by Exocomets, Astronomers Say

Nov 25, 2015 by Natali Anderson

New observations of an unusual star called KIC 8462852 by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that its strange light signals are likely from extrasolar...