[NASA] Ring Around Tabby’s Star

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

This Oct. 4, 2017, illustration shows a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star. The star has experienced unusual dips in brightness over a matter of days, as well as much subtler but longer-term dimming trends. Scientists proposed several explanations for this unexpected behavior, ranging from Tabby’s Star swallowing a planet to alien “megastructures” harvesting the star’s energy. However, a study using NASA’s

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and

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missions as well as the Belgian AstroLAB IRIS observatory suggests that the cause of the dimming over long periods is likely an uneven dust cloud moving around the star.

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, named after Tabetha Boyajian, the Yale University postdoc who discovered it with the help of citizen scientists.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

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