Tabby's Star Dimming Yet Again. Is it dust, ice, a giant ringed plant, alien infrastructure, comets, asteroids, or what? *CONTEST*

in #science • 7 years ago (edited)

Continuing what has been perhaps the greatest case of spectator-friendly real-time science that I can think of, Tabby's Star (aka Boyajian's Star, KIC 8462852, or the slightly presumptive "ALIEN MEGASTRUCTURE DYSON SPHERE STAR!") is dipping once again. It is possible that cycles are starting to become apparent in the timing and depths of the dimming events. Numerous theories are being put out there and just as many are being argued against.

Catch up on the drama at these links and then comment on what you think is going on! Whoever comes up with the best (totally subjective on my part here, could be most upvotes, funniest, most creative, etc) idea for what is behind this phenomenon gets $5 Steem Dollars (gotta start small, I'm new here)! I'll decide on 6/26/2017, based on comments received by 6/24.
https://www.reddit.com/r/KIC8462852/
https://twitter.com/tsboyajian
https://twitter.com/Astro_Wright

Here is a piece from Steemit on one of the previous dimming events:
https://steemit.com/science/@busser/star-of-the-aliens-is-dimming-again

Update! We have a winner. I recently read and enjoyed the Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin and the Revelation Space series by Alastair Reynolds. I don't want to spoil anything, but they did make me think concealment may be the best way to go as a civilization. Prize goes to Vortac! IOnlySayMeep came in third.

#competition #space #news #contest
7 years ago in #science by
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     7 years ago (edited)

    They have noticed we are monitoring them and are going into stealth mode! I expect they will dim it down to mag 20 this time (star brightness, not Gridcoin mag :)

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     7 years ago 

    meep

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       7 years ago 

      Damn, here goes my prize :)

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         7 years ago 

        Congratulations @johnniec! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

        You got your First payout
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        Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honnor on SteemitBoard.
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           7 years ago (edited)

          Thank you for this award, @johnniec! I wish there were more contestants though :)

          Steemit is probably one of the geekiest social media platforms around, but it still needs some fancy headlines to attract attention. Something like: "A CHANCE TO WIN 5 STEEM DOLLARS IS HERE! WHY IS TABBY STAR DIMMING YET AGAIN? ALIENS? ASTEROIDS? BAD SCIENCE?"

          People like a bit of pretense :)

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