One star in our galaxy is unique because it flickers as if somebody's playing with its switch. Researchers are hopeful that the study of Boyajian star's strange flickering could help us find the extraterrestrials or the alien civilization.
Oxford University astrophysicist Prof Chris Lintott made a public lecture about aliens and the unusual star at a Gresham College lecture in Conway Hall, central London on April 29. His main target Was Boyajian's star in the constellation Cygnus, often known as Tabby's star after astronomer Tabetha Boyajian.
Space probes and observatories have been closely examining this star's peculiar fading and brightening in recent years. Lintott said the star's behavior was "extraordinary." Its brightness abruptly decreases and then rises in quick, erratic spurts. It doesn't follow any pattern and it is the only one of its kind in our galaxy.
When Boyajian's star's unpredictable behavior was initially discovered in 2012, the Kepler Space Observatory examined it in great detail. These measurements suggested that a massive amount of stuff is periodically blocking the star's light and circling it tightly.
Theories about the bizarre star included swarms of asteroids, dust rings, and disintegrating comets. The Penn State University scientists' suggestion that the eclipsing mass might be a massive alien megastructure, however, garnered the most attention.
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