Name: Astronomers Have Their Best Solution Yet To The Mysterious 'Alien Megastructure' Star
Uploaded: 2020-10-24T21:01:25.000Z
Duration: 5 min 56 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

going on nearly 1,500 light-years from home.

as though something was passing in front of it.

Since then, scientists have been trying to figure out

Then, in 2019, astronomers proposed a new,

that might finally solve the mystery of Tabby's Star.

First, the star keeps brightening and dimming

While very young stars occasionally do this,

astronomers have never seen this behavior

an advanced alien civilization is to blame.

called a Dyson Sphere to siphon off the star's energy,

For one, you'd expect an orbiting megastructure

to make regular, predictable trips around the star,

just like the  International Space Station

that the dips occur on a consistent schedule.

Brian Metzger: It's a little hard to test it.

Polan: That's Brian Metzger, an astrophysicist

Metzger: Things that go bump in the night.

Polan: Or strange phenomena in the universe,

including the odd behavior of Tabby's Star.

Metzger says another theory has problems as well.

You see, some experts suggest a massive swarm

This has the advantage that, unlike aliens,

Like, why don't other stars show this behavior?

Polan: Basically, there would need to be something special

about Tabby's Star to attract so many comets

to congregate at the same time at the same place.

Tabby's Star is just like any other star of its type.

Luckily, Metzger and his team may have a new solution.

in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

out of its orbit and  towards Tabby's Star

But the planet's moons may have escaped this fate,

instead getting trapped into orbit by Tabby's gravity.

could have melted off chunks of these icy moons,

resulting in a colossal cloud of moon dust around the star.

Now, this plan makes sense for a number of reasons.

Metzger: Dust or small particulate grains

that's constantly morphing and changing its shape,

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Astronomers Have Their Best Solution Yet To The Mysterious 'Alien Megastructure' Star

massive

scenario

constant

pattern