Boyajian’s Star and the supposed ‘alien megastructure’
Astronomers have known about KIC 8462852 for nearly 130 years, but this star, informally known as Boyajian’s Star, has been acting strangely of late. In 2015, Louisiana State University astrophysicist Tabetha Boyajian began to notice some intermittent dimming, sometimes by as much as 22%. These changes in luminosity lasted for a few days or weeks, and no patterns to the dimming could be detected.
News of Boyajian’s Star prompted all sorts of explanations, from a swarm of comets and anirregular band of dust through to a newly destroyed planet and a distorted star. Penn State astronomer Jason Wright shook the science community by proposing the presence of an alien megastructure, like a Dyson sphere. Research from 2019 suggests a disintegrating moon is the most likely cause of the strange dimming.
