Scientists have discovered a new fact about Tabby’s Star, also known as KIC 8462852. For the past ten years, it has remained a mystery to astronomers. But now it appears that a planet or brown dwarf may have been found in the system, and this could explain a great deal.
Tabby’s Star
Tabby’s Star is an F-type star located more than a thousand light-years away and designated KIC 8462852. In 2016, it became famous worldwide because it undergoes dimming events that scientists have been unable to explain. Now, as phys.org reports, researchers have identified a new feature that may provide the key to understanding everything observed so far.
The findings are described in a paper published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The authors used data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, to study changes in the properties of Tabby’s Star in greater detail over a longer period.
The mystery of Tabby’s Star, named after Tabetha Boyajian, who first identified its unusual behavior, lies in the fact that its brightness decreases are extremely irregular and very deep, while their depth varies from one event to another. They are also asymmetrical, meaning that the star does not return to its normal brightness at the same rate at which it dims.
All of this is genuinely puzzling. Normally, when scientists observe dimming events, they are caused by transits of objects passing between us and a star. Such events are almost always regular, have the same depth, and are symmetrical. In this case, however, researchers are dealing with something truly difficult to understand.
What Is Causing It?
Over the past ten years, many explanations have been proposed for the mysterious dimming of Tabby’s Star. Some were highly speculative, such as the idea that it might be caused by a giant artificial structure, while others were more plausible, including a disrupted ring system or a large cloud of comets.
The new paper reports another dimming event that occurred in 2019 but was only recently identified. Its depth was just 1% of the star’s brightness, and it was symmetrical. This is something researchers can explain because it resembles a conventional transit by a planet or a brown dwarf with a mass of approximately 14 Jupiters.
On its own, this particular dip is not directly connected to the large asymmetrical dimming events observed earlier. However, if a massive planet is present in the system, it could be the missing link. The gravity of such a large object could tear asteroids apart or alter the trajectory of a large cloud of comets, which could then produce the mysterious dimming events.
However, this has not yet been proven. Scientists are hoping to obtain additional data from other, more powerful telescopes.
