The possibility of an "alien megastructure" in the star system KIC 8462852 just got dimmer. Researchers now say that this odd, dimming light emitted by the star over the last century can now be blamed on scientific instruments used for observations and not radioactive power indicating an advanced alien civilization.

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Last October 2015, scientists suggested the existence of this advanced alien civilization that built a megastructure near its star to obtain its energy, since a large object appear to be blocking its light. This structure also known as a Dyson Sphere which could also provide clues about the mysterious dimming of exoplanets that is proven not to be produced by gas clouds and dust from comet collisions. 

Another study published in the Astrophysical Journal just last January also presented "evidence" that this alien megastructure caused the dimming of KIC 8462852 by 20 percent over the past 100 years, that cannot be produced by natural causes.

Now, researchers from Vanderbilt University believe that past research are flawed where they studied 500,000 photographic glass plates that were captured in the past century. According to the team, these observations were produced from a variety of different telescopes and cameras, generating instrumental variations and producing inconsistent observations of KIC 8462852.

According to co-author of the study, Keivan Stassun, there are variations of brightness when it comes to a number of comparable stars where the database found that most of them experienced a drop of intensity in the 1960s. This would only mean that these changes are caused by instrumentation and technology and not due to the changing brightness of the stars.

The team says that the observed dips in brightness of KIC 8462852 are confirmed, however, the reason behind this is still unknown. Stassun also reveals that there was a series of unnatural and uneven dips in 2013 that lasted for 100 days, where Kepler Space Telescope data also contained these irregular dips, however, this was considered as an unusual swarm.

To date, the best theory for these dips in brightness of KIC 8462852 is that a giant comet or asteroid shattered into pieces, where its remnants have broken up into millions of smaller fragments, blocking the light of the stars. This new study will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

Tagsalien megastructure, dyson sphere, KIC 8462852, Exoplanets, comets, asteroids, dimming star