• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

The merged and improved (?) KIC 8462852 thread

Once again no one is able to provide any replies relating to the context of the discussion.
You keep pulling up random news articles and asking "Could this be related to the dims?" That's not exactly "context" in the conventional sense, but:

Could the reason for the dimming of KIC 8462 have been caused by alien dust passing through the system that would be very faint and almost impossible to detect using Kepler but would have enough volume to cause the dims of KIC 8462 as the dust particle transited across KIC 8462?
No. It could not.

Next question?
 
Spectral Analysis of KIC 8462

After reading this article at Space dot Com - http://www.space.com/32729-earths-blue-color-signals-life.html

Is there way to determine from a spectral analysis of the dims of KIC 8462 to determine what type of objects caused the dimming to take place? When light passes in front of other light the spectrum values change to a new color. An asteroid would yield one type of spectrum that would change while transiting across KIC, just the same as a swarm of comets would as well as a planet with life on it or habitable planet would cause a spectral change in the light emitted.

Tabetha's Newest Response - http://www.ted.com/talks/tabetha_bo...s_star_in_the_universe/transcript?language=en

Something massive, with roughly 1,000 times the area of Earth, is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852, and nobody is quite sure what it is.

Earth has an area of 196.9 million mi² or 387,696,100,000,000 miles in length. Multiplied by a 1,000 times gives us 387,696,100,000,000,000 miles in length or 3.876961e17. Let's compare.

Jupiter has an area of 23.7 billion miles squared which equals 561,690,000,000,000,000,000 miles or 5.6169e20.

The object is 561,302,302,900,000,000,000 or 5.613023039e20.

Jupiter has and area of 5.6169e20.
The Object has an area of 5.613023039e20.

The object in the article would therefore be slightly smaller than Jupiter. But with Jupiter only causing a slight dim of our Sun when it transits the object orbiting KIC 8462 must be interacting with KIC 8462 to cause the 15% and 22% dims recorded by Kepler.
 
Last edited:
Is there way to determine from a spectral analysis of the dims of KIC 8462 to determine what type of objects caused the dimming to take place?
No.

There may be a way to analyze FUTURE events if we have a big enough telescope with the right equipment to capture the event exactly as it happens. But the records from Kepler cannot be analyzed in that way.

The object in the article would therefore be slightly smaller than Jupiter. But with Jupiter only causing a slight dim of our Sun when it transits the object orbiting KIC 8462 must be interacting with KIC 8462 to cause the 15% and 22% dims recorded by Kepler.
Which means it would be an object large enough to cover most if not all of the disk of the star, and judging by the light curve it would be an object that is not entirely solid and is probably translucent.

Still more evidence for a comet cluster.
 
I wonder if we are seeing the remnants of a dying hot Jupiter/super-earth planet, with moons breaking up--slowed by drag over time.
 
The planet itself may be gone--but what with the three bodies (the hot jupiter's moons) THOSE might have been ejected--cast into such long period orbits after the planet itself was destroyed--many years ago.

Beyond that--I got nothing.
 
Tabetha's Newest Response - http://www.ted.com/talks/tabetha_bo...s_star_in_the_universe/transcript?language=en

Something massive, with roughly 1,000 times the area of Earth, is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852, and nobody is quite sure what it is.

Earth has an area of 196.9 million mi² or 387,696,100,000,000 miles in length. Multiplied by a 1,000 times gives us 387,696,100,000,000,000 miles in length or 3.876961e17. Let's compare.

Jupiter has an area of 23.7 billion miles squared which equals 561,690,000,000,000,000,000 miles or 5.6169e20.

The object is 561,302,302,900,000,000,000 or 5.613023039e20.

Jupiter has and area of 5.6169e20.
The Object has an area of 5.613023039e20.

The object in the article would therefore be slightly smaller than Jupiter. But with Jupiter only causing a slight dim of our Sun when it transits the object orbiting KIC 8462 must be interacting with KIC 8462 to cause the 15% and 22% dims recorded by Kepler.
Your math is seriously off. When they're talking about area, they don't mean the surface area of the the planet, which wouldn't make any sense here. They're talking about the projected silhouette of the planet, so the area would simply be the area of a circle, πr^2. Earth's mean radius is 6371 km, so its area is 127,516,118 km^2. Jupiter's mean radius is 69911 km, so its area is 15,354,683,643 km^2. A thousand times Earth's area is therefore ~128 billion km^2, or more than 8 times Jupiter's area. Pretty big! And working backwards from that area, if it's a single spherical object (not saying that it is), it would have a radius of 201,469 km, or a diameter of nearly 3 times that of Jupiter.
 
Oh believe me, I know. You'll notice I'm not even addressing the entire point of the thread, just correcting math. Couldn't let that one go.
 
Oh believe me, I know. You'll notice I'm not even addressing the entire point of the thread, just correcting math. Couldn't let that one go.
No, I mean we tried to explain the surface area vs silhouette area issue to him before as well. He doesn't get it.
 
The planet itself may be gone--but what with the three bodies (the hot jupiter's moons) THOSE might have been ejected--cast into such long period orbits after the planet itself was destroyed--many years ago.
If something then pulverized all three of those moons in such a way that their dust plumes did not give off a noticeable thermal signature in direct sunlight... sure.

But at this point, it just as easily could have been Jesus.
 
I wonder if we are seeing the remnants of a dying hot Jupiter/super-earth planet, with moons breaking up--slowed by drag over time.

That could be a possibility. Maybe a Super Earth that has broken up where the larger fragments have collected other larger fragments in an orbit.

But for that to be true the fragments would have to be extremely massive. Remember that Jupiter only causes a 1% dim when it transits in front of our Sun.

15% and 22% dims were recorded. What ever caused the dims of KIC 8462 has to be massive.
 
Turns out the long-term dimming that "contradicted" the comet theory was caused by differences in the instruments used to measure the brightness. Nails, meet lid.

“In this case, we looked at variations in the brightness of a number of comparable stars in the DASCH database and found that many of them experienced a similar drop in intensity in the 1960’s. That indicates the drops were caused by changes in the instrumentation not by changes in the stars’ brightness.”
 
http://www.space.com/32864-alien-megastructure-star-telescope-changes.html

Another thought is that the changes in cameras and telescopes over time is what caused the dimming of KIC 8462 to occur. Although this would be a good premise for observations using older cameras and telescopes, Kepler is state of the art equipment where any flaws found in the earlier cameras and telescopes would have found and alleviated so that better results would be achieved.

I would have to think that Kepler's highly polished mirror would alleviate any scenarios where older equipment would have attributed to the dimming of KIC 8462 due to the lenses or mirrors being inferior.

Scientists have also ruled out an enormous dust cloud as well.


In the new study, scientists pored over DASCH (Digital Access to a Sky Century @ Harvard) data. This is a collection of more than 500,000 photographic glass plates taken by astronomers at Harvard in Massachusetts between 1885 and 1993 that the university is digitizing.

"It is exciting that we have these century-old data, which are incredibly valuable for checks like this," study lead author Michael Hippke, an amateur astronomer from the German town of Neukirchen-Vluyn, told Space.com.

The researchers looked not only at Tabby's Star, but also at a number of comparable stars in the DASCH database. Results showed that many of these other stars experienced a drop in brightness similar to that of Tabby's Star in the 1960s.

"That indicates the drops were caused by changes in the instrumentation, not by changes in the stars' brightness," study co-author Keivan Stassun at Vanderbilt University in Nashville,

But like I mentioned Kepler is far superior to the DASCH database and therefore dimming should not be be result of the equipment.

Results showed that many of these other stars experienced a drop in brightness similar to that of Tabby's Star in the 1960s.

What other space based phenom aside from comets would cause a wide path of dimming across many other stars at around the same time?

The only thing that I can think of would be similar to blowing on a lit match. If you light a match and just let it burn it maintain a regular glow and burn rate. But if blow on it slightly the flame itself becomes smaller and irregular. Maybe something took place in space-time that placed a pressure against these series of stars similar to blowing on the lit match causing the light of the stars to dim and then return to normal.

We will know more when a spectral analysis is presented.

"Observing further dips in different colors can reveal information about the chemistry of the transiting object, which might confirm or reject a cometary origin," Hippke said.

Objects give off their spectral aura. Comets and planets each have their own unique spectral identifiers as would artificial objects would once their aura has been eliminated as not belonging to any known natural object.
 
Last edited:
http://www.space.com/32864-alien-megastructure-star-telescope-changes.html

Another thought is that the changes in cameras and telescopes over time is what caused the dimming of KIC 8462 to occur. Although this would be a good premise for observations using older cameras and telescopes, Kepler is state of the art equipment where any flaws found in the earlier cameras and telescopes would have found and alleviated so that better results would be achieved.
Since Kepler's observations are completely unrelated to the (now debunked) Schaeffer Event, this is irrelevant.


What other space based phenom aside from comets would cause a wide path of dimming across many other stars at around the same time?
Nothing at all. Which is one of the ways they could tell it was an instrumentation error that Schaeffer -- who was reading the plays by sight alone and not using any objectively quantifiable methods -- failed to properly account for.
 
Nice Eddie! How many pages ago did you argue this exact point? I am glad there has been direct confirmation now.
 
I was reading how an observatory recently recorded Atomic Oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars. Oxygen Atoms have an impact of the atmosphere of Mars affecting how other other gases escape Mars. Looking at the curve of the atmosphere in the article the curve "dims" similar to how the light curve of KIC 8462 and other stars observed have a light curve that dims.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/so...y-detects-atomic-oxygen-in-martian-atmosphere

Could there be a reaction taking place in the atmosphere of KIC 8462 and other stars where a gas is causing the escape of gases to differ thus causing the dimming to take place?


I have to revise my reasoning for why the KIC Network is special. Astrophysicists have been through the space time spectrum of speculation regarding KIC 8462 ranging from Dyson Sphere's to comets.

This radical idea of what may be causing the dims is as elusive as a black hole itself is. I for one believe that a black hole is like the drain in a sink or bath tub that creates a vortex at its center while the mass of what is being taken in resides around the sides of the vortex. A sink or tub vortex has an ending that dumps the mass of the vortex into a much larger are. A black hole might function the same.

What could be taking place within the KIC Network of stars could be that exit point of matter from a black hole that would place pressure against a star causing the light of the star to dim much like blowing on a lit match. Similar to how a vortex moves around on land and is never in the same location but is rather eradict could lend some understanding to why the light curve of the stars in the KIC Network fluctuate.

To basically say this is true is baseless. But if the stars of the KIC Network orbit around a void in space then perhaps the turbulence of the matter being dumped into the KIC Network would cause the stars to orbit in the manner they do.
 
Last edited:
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top