Taking a break from the politics tonight to indulge something other than music and video games for a change. Instead, let's look at ... the strange. Do you remember the flurry of interest in KIC 8462852, better known as the alien megastructure star a couple of years ago? Well, observations are ongoing and yes, it's still behaving weirdly, but latest measurements are indicative of a huge cloud of dust and debris that is producing its celebrated dimming effects. For shame - no aliens. There was also some excitement last week when anomalous signals were received from Ross 128, a red dwarf star 11 light years away. They too turned out not to be aliens either. Double bah.
All is not lost. There is still plenty of weirdness in the heavens, and here's one. A star inexplicably made up of elements not found in nature. At least, as far as we know. The video below is from science fiction author John Michael Godier who definitely isn't a member of the goggle-eyed conspiracy brigade. It probably isn't aliens, but something very unusual is going on.
4 comments:
That was fun, Phil. Just popping off to dump some Plutonium in Sol. Hello Galaxy!! :-)
I think a few people might have something to say about the risks of putting plutonium in rockets ...
No. Plutonium may not be natural here, but a supernova could produce it, along with the rest of the elements heavier than iron - albeit rarely. Nobody knows enough about them to be sure. Your rubbish dump star could have developed near such a supernova dust cloud.
To be frank, Phil, this is all sounding a little too desperate. Maybe you need to shave off some of that space fuzz with a few deft strokes of Occam's razor. Besides, do you really want to meet up with a group of space-faring aliens that have produced so much plutonium they have to dump it into a star?
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