The mysterious 'Alien Megastructure' star dims again

The most mysterious star in our galaxy is calling out astronomers again. On Friday, May 19, a sudden dips in brightness of the Tabbby Star observed in the skies, resulted many astronomer to point out their telescopes at the star to decode its strange signal.

The start is located some 1,300 light years away in the constellation Cygnus.

Back in 2015, a team lead by Yale’s Tabetha Boyajian observed the mysterious phenomenon staged by the star KIC 8462852. The star dimmed by up to 22 percent before returning to normal.

In the following year, a review of old photographic plates revealed that the star dimmed by 14 per cent between the year 1890-1989, and has faded by another 3 per cent over four years, as detected by the Kepler Space Telescope.

“ALERT: @tsboyajian’s star is dipping. This is not a drill,’ Jason Wright, Penn State Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics tweeted Friday morning.

‘Astro tweeps on telescopes in the next 48 hours: spectra please!’

Tabetha Boyajian, the scientist after whom the star earned its nickname tweeted “CALL TO ACTION!!,” calling to point as many as telescopes possible, including NASA’s Kepler to observe the dimming.

Astronomers had remained sceptical what really caused the star to dim. Most famously, some astronomers believe that the dimming could be due to an orbiting “alien megastructure”.

They now hope the recent dimming of the star could help them explain reason behind its fluctuation.