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Posted on November 22, 2018
In 2016, a group of astronomers from Pennsylvania State University released a pre-print citing the "bizarre light curve" of star KIC 8462852 as "consistent with" a swarm of megastructures built by extraterrestrials. This ordinary F-star soon became "the most mysterious star in the universe," as Yale's astronomer Tabetha Boyajian described in KIC 8462852, known as the Tabby Star.
"The lows found by Kepler are real. Something seems to be going past this star and we still have no idea what it is, "said German astronomer Michael Hippke.
But subsequent research conducted by astronomer Huan Meng at the University of Arizona, concluded that a ring of microscopic dust from a circumstellar material found in the star system is at the # 39; origin of the attenuation and brightness presented by KIC 8462852. "interstellar medium," says Meng, which means that the object or objects at the center of this investigation lie well in the planetary system of the 39, star of Tabby.
Now astronomers using the VISTA telescope in the Atacama desert in northern Chile have discovered a star whose dimming and dazzling light is reminiscent of Tabby's star.
The team spotted the object in data that was part of a larger study of the center of the galaxy called VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea, or VVV. Instead of lighting up, this star suddenly darkens. The team called VVV-WIT-07, for "What is it?"
Saito and his colleagues plan to follow the star with more powerful telescopes, such as the 8.1 meter Gemini telescope or the large Atacama millimeter array, both located in Chile.
"If this phenomenon is the same as what happens with the Tabby star, we can not invoke a detailed explanation of what is happening in both systems," says Boyajian. "If you start seeing stars similar to these everywhere, then it has to be really a common thing in nature – it's really cool."
The behavior of the new star is disconcerting, said astronomer Roberto Saito of the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil. He and his colleagues reported the star's twinkle on November 6 on arXiv.org.
"We do not know what the object is," he says. "And it's interesting." The star may have some sort of orbiting debris that periodically blocks starlight, but Saito and her colleagues say they need more observations to determine if this is possible or if the flicker is caused by something else.
From 2010 to 2018, the brightness of the star has steadily increased, with no pattern identical to that of the Tabby star, except that the light of the VVV-WIT-07 has dropped to 80%, while that the Tabby star has only decreased by 20%.
Since VVV-WIT-07 is located in the plane of the galaxy, the view of the Earth on the star is full of dust, which makes it difficult to define details such as the distance from the star or its type . If it's a young variable star, for example, its dimples might be internal.
"Almost everything is on the table right now," says Boyajian. "We need more data."
Image credit: comets JPL / Caltech converging on a star.
The Daily Galaxy via Vanderbilt University, R.K. Saito et al. VVV-WIT-07: another Boyajian star or Mamajek object? arXiv: 1811.02265. Posted November 6, 2018, and on dailygalaxy.com.
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