Dust cloud, or alien construction?

http://ift.tt/1MBBwGU

Quote:

Kepler observed the star KIC 8462852 for four years starting in 2009. Typically, orbiting planets only dim the light of their host star for a period of a few hours to a few days depending on their orbit. A group of citizen scientists noticed that this star appeared to have two small dips in 2009, followed by a large dip lasting almost a week in 2011, and finally a series of multiple dips significantly dimming the star’s light in 2013. ... The pattern of dips indicates that the star is orbited by a large, irregular-shaped mass. If it were orbiting a young star, this mass might be a protoplanetary disc, but KIC 8462852 is not a young star. We would also expect to see the presence of dust emitting infrared light, which hasn’t been observed. So what is this orbiting mass? Scientists predict that whatever it is, it had to have formed recently as it would have been pulled in by the star’s gravity and consumed. Boyajian recently published a paper offering several possible explanations for the bizarre transits. The leading theory is that a family of exocomets passed too close to the star, and were shredded into pieces by the star’s massive gravity. The remaining dust and debris could be left to orbit the star. But researchers from UC Berkeley’s SETI Institute think it could be something else entirely: They think this could be a sign of alien technology.

I vote pulverized comets or something similar, but it would certainly be cool if it was something artificial.

Edit to add a link to a PDF of the original paper: http://ift.tt/1k1DHZ3

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1ZE8Dz5