Alien megastructure star: NASA reckons mysterious KIC 8462852 debris is swarm of comets - TomoNews

SOME TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY — Mysterious debris surrounding a star that scientists earlier this year posited may be an alien megastructure is actually likely to be just comets, according to NASA.

The space agency used its Spitzer Space Telescope to observe infrared light data from the star, KIC 8462852, to test for other possibilities of what the debris maybe. NASA explained that if planetary impact or an asteroid collision was the cause of the debris, there would have been excess infrared light surrounding the star. Spitzer found none.

"Spitzer has observed all of the hundreds of thousands of stars where Kepler hunted for planets, in the hope of finding infrared emission from circumstellar dust," Michael Werner, the Spitzer project scientist at NASA, said in a press release on the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's website.

While NASA doesn't specifically rule out the megastructure theory, it gives more credence to the idea that comets of varying shapes and sizes are what caused the anomaly initially observed.

The research was led by Massimo Marengo of Iowa State University and has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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[RealCongH]

There has been an update that ruled out comets.

[House_Of_Cards_]

I think we need to have a closer look at that star. We need to research it really carefully in the next years. So no one can rule out any possibility. I think there is a big chance this could be an artificial structure. We will see.

[LevF]

Oh right, NASA said it so it's just ice and debris... So it must be true😂😂😂👎🏻

[Ramiromasters]

Planetary collision is unlikely the cause, thus comets is a plausible explanation?
I don't see where you made the connection there...
That is like saying: I didn't won the lottery with my numbers therefore my friend must have won!

[lenkel]

If I recall correctly this alien superstructure is some 1500 ly away from us in a galaxy that's 100, 000+ ly across. We haven't seen much yet of the galaxy let alone the billions of other galaxies so to think that there's no life or intelligent life anywhere but Earth is highly speculative though I await the evidence.

[odinvikernes]

Nasa fake ass discovery propaganda never cease to amaze me :)

[ethanclemons]

The odds that were alone are very slim but it's most likely comets