The current hit television show, "The Big Bang Theory" usually deals with the foibles and personality quirks of its scientist lead characters, particularly one intellectually gifted, but high maintenance physicist. The show, however, sometimes deals with matters of scientific interest. One interesting note, is that with the two physicists, one astronomer and the lone engineer among them who “only has his master’s degree” will deal with outer space. For example, they have looked at stars, and Howard, the engineer, was even an astronaut. It also has dealt with Howard crashing the Mars Rover in an attempt to impress a date, and Leonard giving away secrets to a North Korean agent. Hence, I would not be surprised if they find a way to deal with a new issue going around the galaxy.
Star KC 8642852, otherwise known as Tabby, has been followed by the Kepler satellite. It is quite far from earth, being about 1400 light years away. nformation from the satellite shows that the light curve of Tabby was first reported to have followed a typical light curve for a star of its classification, but upon further review that analysis has been overturned. The light curve provides, from information gathered from Kepler, ten dips of a rather marked nature. A August 2016 study by Montet and Simon notes that Tabby dimmed in its first four years of study by Kepler at a linearly predictable rate, but then dimmed "much more rapidly in the next ~200 days.” The final 200 days of study showed a photometry that remained constant “although the data are also consistent with decline rate measured for the first 2.7 yr.” The dip in the light curve rate was the subject of their paper. The most interesting thing uncovered in Montet and Simon’s professional paper is that “no known or proposed stellar phenomenon can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve.” Montent is quoted by "Popular Mechanics" as saying that “the part that surprised me was just how rapid and non-linear [the diming] was.” This is a big deal, as either their data is not fully correct, the math wrong, or there now has to be a new theory in physics and astronomy. Time will tell as peer review occurs. Yet, there is another option.
It has been proposed, and of course cannot at this time be discounted, that aliens are building a large superstructure around the star to harvest its energy. While we here on earth are choking and burning on fossil fuel consumption, some other beings may be building their version of a solar array to harvest energy. Could they be aiming to power their own death star to blow up another planet in interstellar warfare? Montet and Simon realize that there are theories that can explain part of what is occurring but no current theory, according the bright minds that look at such things, can fully explain the dimming and flickering of light from Tabby. In tha that Popular Mechanics article, Montet acknowledged it took them awhile to get their head around their results.
The Montet and Simon paper is producing a great deal of excitement in the field of astronomy. This is where Sheldon Cooper comes in, perhaps he will develop the theory that will explain the odd light behavior of KC 8642852 and in so doing earn his Nobel prize. Raj and Leonard may well provide input, but one can be assured that since the world revolves around Sheldon he will take all the credit. Sheldon has his own universe, and while KC 8642852 is in our galaxy, to us it is in another world. Of course, this whole study may turn out to be another case more analogous to cold fusion.
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| Milky Way Galaxy |
Star KC 8642852, otherwise known as Tabby, has been followed by the Kepler satellite. It is quite far from earth, being about 1400 light years away. nformation from the satellite shows that the light curve of Tabby was first reported to have followed a typical light curve for a star of its classification, but upon further review that analysis has been overturned. The light curve provides, from information gathered from Kepler, ten dips of a rather marked nature. A August 2016 study by Montet and Simon notes that Tabby dimmed in its first four years of study by Kepler at a linearly predictable rate, but then dimmed "much more rapidly in the next ~200 days.” The final 200 days of study showed a photometry that remained constant “although the data are also consistent with decline rate measured for the first 2.7 yr.” The dip in the light curve rate was the subject of their paper. The most interesting thing uncovered in Montet and Simon’s professional paper is that “no known or proposed stellar phenomenon can fully explain all aspects of the observed light curve.” Montent is quoted by "Popular Mechanics" as saying that “the part that surprised me was just how rapid and non-linear [the diming] was.” This is a big deal, as either their data is not fully correct, the math wrong, or there now has to be a new theory in physics and astronomy. Time will tell as peer review occurs. Yet, there is another option.
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| Death Star |
It has been proposed, and of course cannot at this time be discounted, that aliens are building a large superstructure around the star to harvest its energy. While we here on earth are choking and burning on fossil fuel consumption, some other beings may be building their version of a solar array to harvest energy. Could they be aiming to power their own death star to blow up another planet in interstellar warfare? Montet and Simon realize that there are theories that can explain part of what is occurring but no current theory, according the bright minds that look at such things, can fully explain the dimming and flickering of light from Tabby. In tha that Popular Mechanics article, Montet acknowledged it took them awhile to get their head around their results.
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| A Dyson sphere as a solar array Artist rendering of what the Alien structure may look like |
The Montet and Simon paper is producing a great deal of excitement in the field of astronomy. This is where Sheldon Cooper comes in, perhaps he will develop the theory that will explain the odd light behavior of KC 8642852 and in so doing earn his Nobel prize. Raj and Leonard may well provide input, but one can be assured that since the world revolves around Sheldon he will take all the credit. Sheldon has his own universe, and while KC 8642852 is in our galaxy, to us it is in another world. Of course, this whole study may turn out to be another case more analogous to cold fusion.
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| Main cast of "Big Bang Theory" |
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