[math-fun] KIC 8462852 -- "Alien megastructure" star, something serious happening
The article is here http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03256 and they're going to have a hell of a time explaining that. (I used to know that guy, Bradley Schaeffer, in college.) Hoo boy. -- Warren D. Smith http://RangeVoting.org <-- add your endorsement (by clicking "endorse" as 1st step)
The luminosity of KIC 8462852 is about 4.5 to 5 times that of the sun and its mass is 1.45 solar masses. This means the star has a lifetime of 2 to 2.5 billion years, which is short for the evolution of intelligent life. SETI pointed their radio telescopes at it, but saw no signal. I'd guess the most likely explanation is some chaotic behavior of the nuclear reactions in the star. It's massive for an F-class star, close to being a B-class star and low in metals; so it's plausible that some kind of instability may occur in its radiative zone. Brent On 1/18/2016 2:17 PM, Warren D Smith wrote:
The article is here http://arxiv.org/abs/1601.03256
and they're going to have a hell of a time explaining that. (I used to know that guy, Bradley Schaeffer, in college.) Hoo boy.
participants (2)
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Brent Meeker -
Warren D Smith