We're not alone.... maybe.

smash

Astronomers may have found giant alien 'megastructures' orbiting star near the Milky Way

The snappily named KIC 8462852 star lies just above the Milky Way between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. It first attracted the attention of astronomers in 2009 when the Kepler Space Telescope identified it as a candidate for having orbiting Earth-like planets.

But KIC 8462852 was emitting a stranger light pattern than any of the other stars in Kepler’s search for habitable planets.

Kepler works by analysing light from distant places in the universe — looking for changes that take place when planets move in front of their stars. But the dip in starlight from KIC 8462852 doesn't seem to be the normal pattern for a planet.

Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoc at Yale told The Atlantic: “We’d never seen anything like this star. It was really weird. We thought it might be bad data or movement on the spacecraft, but everything checked out.”

...

The three astronomers want to point a radio dish at the star to look for wavelengths associated with technological civilisations. And the first observations could be ready to take place as early as January, with follow-up observations potentially coming even quicker.

So that's a brief description of what's going on and there's a full article here.

So what do you think AH? Will they be nice aliens? Are we doomed? Would you ride one?

Exciting times ahead!

SEPT 23 1989

Death Star

laserlad2010

I think it's pretty cool - and the concept of light delay is really interesting - It's 1500 light years away which means they're seeing 500AD right now on earth - and we're seeing them 1500 years ago.

Explains why they wouldn't bother coming to visit considering we'd no spacecraft, technology or perhaps civilisation visible from space.

The vast likelihood is that it's nothing, but we can all dream, right?

P.S. I hope they don't have toothy vaginas

5starpool

Borg cube probably.

NachoBusiness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArD18SSjdzE

brevity

I hope they are nice because I don't like rude Aliens.

Matt_Trakker

smash wrote: »

Exciting times ahead!

Afraid not and wouldn't be the first time people have gotten it wrong.
http://gizmodo.com/the-many-many-times-astronomers-mistook-mundane-phenom-1736795901?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+io9%2Ffull+%28io9%29

Not impossible of course and it would be cool if it were alien-made structures. IMO, something that advanced if it existed so close would've dropped by earth already....unless they did and thought were gob****es and continued on their jaunt

The_Valeyard

Could possibly be the dust and debris from a planetary collision.

But......unless I am very mistaken, we viewing something from such a far distance, that we are basically observing something that happened well over 1500 years ago??

So if it is aliens building superstructures, we at the time, were busy with the collapse of civilization and the dark ages?

listermint

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Could possibly be the dust and debris from a planetary collision.

But......unless I am very mistaken, we viewing something from such a far distance, that we are basically observing something that happened well over 1500 years ago??

So if it is aliens building superstructures, we at the time, were busy with the collapse of civilization and the dark ages?

Maybe they collapsed civilisation ..... :eek:

jimgoose

V'ger, obviously. We were bound to run into that thing eventually. :cool:

The_Valeyard

listermint wrote: »

Maybe they collapsed civilisation ..... :eek:

Get tinfoil hats on!! Maybe they sent the plague hoping to wipe us out!!!!

kneemos

More immigrants!

allibastor

How do you post pics, I have a really good one which sums up this!!!!

Duckworth_Luas

I'm not saying it's aliens but .......

Duggy747

Whatever the explanation, it's still pretty cool and there seems to be such a metric fúck-ton of enormous objects around the star (which is about 1.5 times the size of our sun) that nearly a quarter of it's luminosity is blocked.

Barry Badrinath

Seriously lads,

Id rather see Critters arrive than E.T.

That lad was a creep! Hanging around with kids, cross dressing, appauling table manners aaaaand he had that weird finger!

smash

Remember "V" in the 80's? They could be lizard people disguised as sexy vixens who eat mice!

Son Of A Vidic

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Death Star

Funny much that post I do find.

Panthro

The real question is.....can we tax the bastards?

Barry Badrinath

smash wrote: »

Remember "V" in the 80's? They could be lizard people disguised as sexy vixens who eat mice!

Thats the dream right there!

Were they the ones who drank lumpy stale milk?

DEFTLEFTHAND

Panthro wrote: »

The real question is.....can we tax the bastards?

I imagine they'll be slaughtered, we can't take any risks dealing with these savages.

Saipanne

Irish Water reference.

arayess

Saipanne wrote: »

Irish Water reference.

will they have to pay too?

smash

Wolf Hanssen wrote: »

Thats the dream right there!

Were they the ones who drank lumpy stale milk?

Can't remember, but I do know that ever at 10yrs old I wanted to ride Diana!

Daith

Wolf Hanssen wrote: »

Thats the dream right there!

Were they the ones who drank lumpy stale milk?

No, that was Alien Nation!

One things for sure. We better stop Whale hunting right now!

Son Of A Vidic

smash wrote: »

Remember "V" in the 80's? They could be lizard people disguised as sexy vixens who eat mice!

Ah yes, I remember those vixens well. I'd gladly take some 'reeducation' from them providing they don't shed their skin.

Kimbot

smash wrote: »

So that's a brief description of what's going on and there's a full article here.

So what do you think AH? Will they be nice aliens? Are we doomed? Would you ride one?

Exciting times ahead!

If they are anything like total recall then ill just motorboat the hell outta them

Barry Badrinath

smash wrote: »

Can't remember, but I do know that ever at 10yrs old I wanted to ride Diana!

Good choice! She still breathing?

smash

Wolf Hanssen wrote: »

Good choice! She still breathing?

I'm afraid to go looking for answers in case it destroys my deranged childhood fantasies.

Barry Badrinath

smash wrote: »

I'm afraid to go looking for answers in case it destroys my deranged childhood fantasies.

Iv good news! Still alive and still hot!

Rubberchikken

if there are any aliens out there, would there come here and sort this country out. they'd have to do a better job than the shower wrecking the place at the mo *sigh*

smash

Wolf Hanssen wrote: »

Iv good news! Still alive and still hot!

Thanks man. At 61, she'd still get it!

Idbatterim

Fingers crossed they visit and take Enda Kenny back with them!

Son Of A Vidic

smash wrote: »

Thanks man. At 61, she'd still get it!

I think she's aged pretty well and yes I still would.

Son Of A Vidic

Idbatterim wrote: »

Fingers crossed they visit and take Enda Kenny back with them!

If I remember the series from the Eighties correctly, I think they prefer creatures with some level of cerebral activity. And since Enda has the brain function of a vegetable, I don't think he'd even register on their scans.:(

Stranger Danger

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering." - Arthur C. Clarke

gerrybbadd

These articles never have any photos with them. Always the same. I wanna see dammit

smoking_kills

Idbatterim wrote: »

Fingers crossed they visit and take Enda Kenny back with them!

And "PROBE" him.....Repeatedly

nyarlothothep

If they can build Dyson spheres it's not outside the bounds of possibility that they have ftl which would make the time differences unimportant. But I don't think it's likely to be aliens.

Agent Coulson

nyarlothothep wrote: »

If they can build Dyson spheres it's not outside the bounds of possibility that they have ftl which would make the time differences unimportant. But I don't think it's likely to be aliens.

They any good at cleaning the carpet?

Jon_459

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

If I remember the series from the Eighties correctly, I think they prefer creatures with some level of cerebral activity. And since Enda has the brain function of a vegetable, I don't think he'd even register on their scans.:(

Enda is one of them ... part of the advance guard!

paulbok

smoking_kills wrote: »

And "PROBE" him.....Repeatedly

With a water meter

Birneybau

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Death Star

That's no moon.

razorblunt

laserlad2010 wrote: »

I think it's pretty cool - and the concept of light delay is really interesting - It's 1500 light years away which means they're seeing 500AD right now on earth - and we're seeing them 1500 years ago.

Explains why they wouldn't bother coming to visit considering we'd no spacecraft, technology or perhaps civilisation visible from space.

The vast likelihood is that it's nothing, but we can all dream, right?

P.S. I hope they don't have toothy vaginas

Waaaah? That's mad.

All they need is a sports almanac!

RikkFlair

I saw the smoking man from the X Files in a restaurant in Limerick yesterday. Something is afoot.

Kermit.de.frog

I'm frightened.

cowboyBuilder

RikkFlair wrote: »

I saw the smoking man from the X Files in a restaurant in Limerick yesterday. Something is afoot.

My God !!!


and was he smoking ?

DEFTLEFTHAND

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

I'm frightened.

Don't worry Kermie like I mentioned earlier they'll be taken care of, these beasts won't be troubling anyone.

conorhal

Occam's razor: In explaining a thing, no more assumptions should be made than are necessary.

Clickbait: The opposite.



Shame on these charlatan scientists and their 'You WON'T BELIEVE what we found around KIC!' attempt at headline grabbing. There's a whiff of sombody trying to justify their funding in SETI about that press release.

Kivaro

brevity wrote: »

I hope they are nice because I don't like rude Aliens.

I hear that they jump queues.
The bastards.

jamesbere

I think it's cool that their observing something 1500 years in the past. I mean what has happened to that civilisation (if that's what unusual lights represent) and are they still thriving or have they wiped themselves out.