This star is interesting to astronomers for its irregular flicker. Its other name is KIC 8462852. An article with a detailed description of the scientific assumption is published in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
KIC 8462852 is a dwarf star of a yellow-white spectrum, located at a distance of about 1280 light-years from our planet. The star was first discovered in 2015. Since then, it has created many scientific problems for scientists due to the constantly changing brightness.
As a rule, scientists explain the change in the brightness of a star in connection with the passage of a planet in front of it. But in the case of Tabby, this is completely ruled out. Moreover, the brightness of the star decreases in a fairly wide range - from 5 to 22%. And the results of earlier observations show that the brightness index is steadily decreasing.
Astronomers began constant observation of a changing object. They found that during a decrease in brightness, the activity of radiation of waves of various lengths varied over a wide range. At first, various hypotheses were developed to explain this mysterious phenomenon.
However, it became apparent that light is not blocked by opaque objects that are capable of delaying light radiation. This immediately threw off fantastic speculations about the alleged presence of an extraterrestrial civilization nearby.
The observed process could be explained by the presence of a so-called comet swarm or a cloud of dust near it.But so that the brightness of the star decreases so that it can be observed with the help of telescopes, and even so much, it is necessary that the density of the comet or dust matter be incredible.
Therefore, scientists led by B. Metzger of Columbia University have developed an interesting hypothesis. It boils down to the fact that flickering can be caused by the so-called plunet. This is a wandering moon that has left the orbit of its celestial body and melts under the influence of the mother moon. This object throws dust into the interstellar space, particles of matter. They rotate around the star, and then are absorbed. This phenomenon provokes a change in the brightness of Tabby.
According to available models, the movement of moons from the orbits of giant planets is possible. Satellites can be thrown out of the planetary system, fall on a star. About half of these objects eventually become plunets, orbiting around a star.
Studies show that there are many such stars. And not one of them changes brightness like Tabby. To confirm the assumption, astronomers need to find several similar celestial objects. So far, there is no significant evidence that there are moons outside the solar system. Similarly, it is not unusual that the moon may fall on the mother star.
Perhaps with the development of technology, scientists will be able to get closer to unraveling the secrets of stars with changing flicker. This will help to solve some important unresolved issues of the development of stars and space.
