The Mystery of the Flickering Star

This development was just too cool to pass up. Recently, professional and citizen scientists in the Planet Hunter program using the Kepler Space Telescope picked up on a bizarre occurrence - a flickering star.  Located around 1,500 light years away, the star has been labeled KIC 8462852. Out of the approximately 150,000 stars that the telescope observes, this one star is somehow displaying unusual, irregular flashes light.

Theories as to what may have caused this phenomenon are varied. An astronomer at Yale University, Tabetha Boyajian, wrote that " the scenario most consistent with the data in hand is the passage of a family of exocomet fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous breakup event."

Others brought up the possibility that this event could be a confirmation of alien life, exploring that "the mysterious dips in light were due to massive structures built around the star by an advanced civilization."

Who really knows? The Kepler Space telescope was damaged in 2013 so researchers have less data to work with and unfortunately will have a hard time figuring out just what is happening 1,500 light years away.

Read more here: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kepler-space-telescope-mysterious-objects-raise-questions-bizarre/story?id=34494182
Tabetha Boyajian's Report in the Monthly Notes of the Royals Astronomical Society: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1509.03622v1.pdf