![]() ![]() As the sun rises where one telescope is located, the observation moves to another telescope. The Las Cumbres Observatory is the only global robotic telescope network in the world to provide continuous observations. The project was to see what happened next.”Įight planets found orbiting distant star, NASA says We’re not going to search for signs of ET. “All of our supporters were interested in seeing data be collected so they could help us figure out what it was,” Boyajian said. They raised more than $100,000, which granted the researchers a wide window to observe the star from March 2016 to December 2017. More than 1,700 people donated to a Kickstarter campaign to help the astronomers buy observation time through the Las Cumbres Observatory in California. They needed more observations, in different wavelengths, for a better picture. The data set collected by the Kepler mission, which began in 2009, wasn’t enough to help astronomers debunk all of the theories swirling around the star’s mystery. If a mass of planets were involved, there would have to be more than 50 of them, perfectly aligned and “marching” in front of the star to create such a dip. The Kepler data revealed that the star dropped in brightness by as much as 22%, Boyajian said. ![]() Suggestions from fellow astronomers included a mass of planets, or even an alien megastructure. The logical conclusion: Something had to be blocking it. The long and short fluctuations in light didn’t make sense. It’s an F star, which is supposed to maintain constant brightness. And then there’s the fact that it grew fainter over the past century. It has dimmed for a few days or a week at a time. 'Zombie' star won't die, even after explodingįor no obvious reason, Tabby’s Star has been dimming and brightening in strange and unpredictable ways. VLT observations have shown that these cosmic dust factories make their grains in a two-stage process, starting soon after the explosion, but continuing long afterwards. This artist's impression shows dust forming in the environment around a supernova explosion. ![]()
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