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Week 12 [21-27.01.19] The most mysterious star in the universe

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Recently I have stumbled upon a few articles about a very unusual star. I think that it is a quite interesting topic so I would like to present you a TED talk by a person who is responsible for this discovery.
Questions:
1. Would you like to participate in the Planet Hunters project? Why/ why not?
2. Do you think that people are alone in the Universe?
3. Do you think it is possible that some alien mega-structure like Dyson sphere blocs sunlight from KIC 8462852? Are such structures even possible to build or is it just a pure science fiction?
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Comments

Volodymyr Kepsha said…
1. I'm not sure that I would like to participate in the Planet Hunter project, even though its idea seems to be extremely cool and kind of useful.
2. 99.999... sure that we are not alone just due to the reason that the size of the universe is so huge that's impossible to imagine. It gives pretty high probability that what happened on our planet can occur somewhere else.
3. I doubt that some enormous structures were build in order to get some more energy from their sun. It would much easier for them to find a new planet for living.
23 January 2019 at 18:31
Kyrylo Proskurin said…
There is no way of telling if we are alone in the universe. Simply because of the physics. The closest galaxy to the Milky Way is Andromeda, which is 2.537 million light years away. Meaning, that at this very moment we see it the way it looked like 2.537 million years back. Right now it may not even exist any more. As well as it happened with the Pillars of Creation (7.000 light years away from Earth, were destroyed approximateley 6 thousand years ago (confirmed), we will still be able to observe them for another thousand years). Even if aliens do live somewhere, they don't know that we exist. They see the Milky way as it was 2.5 million years back.
24 January 2019 at 22:10
Unknown said…
1. I would love to participate in the Planet Hunters project. It just seems fun and it is also helpful. I've always been fascinated in this subject so I would be more than happy to help.

2. Now that is a tough question. I doubt we are alone in the universe considering how vast it is and how little can we observe with our current technology.

3. I don't think it is alien Dyson sphere that blocks sunlight, but I believe that it is possible to build one. It would probably be the biggest project in our history and would take a lot of time to build something like that, but in time we would probably be able to construct something like that.
26 January 2019 at 20:56
Illia Loshchinin said…
It sounds great, and I am glad that such a project exists. Everyone can become a member of the detected stars in the universe and thus help scientists. I am definitely confident that we are not alone in such a huge universe. I have never heard of KIC 8462852. The explanation of what happens to this planet, Tabeta Boyajyan, was awesome :) Even nowadays, people think about how to produce renewable energy and have developed solar panels for this purpose. And the idea that aliens have created a mega-structure similar to Dyson sounds not insane, but very clever. You get a huge source of energy without problems for your planet. However, today we do not have such technical progress to build something like that.
27 January 2019 at 13:24
Michał Jakubowicz said…
If you think that Planet Hunters project seems cool, then why you wouldn't like to participate in it? It is because of lack of time?
I also think that such enormous structures like Dyson sphere are unlikely to exist, but, in my opinion, there is always a chance.
27 January 2019 at 14:16
Michał Jakubowicz said…
I agree that we might be not alone in universe, it is just our civilisation isn't advanced enough to find life on other planets.
I also think that people will be able to build such amazing structures, our technology is developing extremely fast. 100 years there were no computers and horses were used as main "vehicle", now we can break atoms, we posses amazing miniaturized computers in our pockets and we are starting to develop better and better artificial intelligence. I can't even imagine what will happen in 100 years or 1000 years.
27 January 2019 at 14:23
Michał Jakubowicz said…
I'm really glad that you enjoyed this TED talk. I also find idea of Dyson sphere amazing and really interesting, but I'm afraid I won't see such structure in my life. To build such thing people would have to collect materials from at least few planets, and we are certainly not able to that, at least not yet :)
27 January 2019 at 14:27
Mykhailo Tarasiuk said…
Maybe yes but writing programs for this project or engage in improving the existing program. Because it's interesting topic and to my mind very important for all humanity also our resources are not unlimited, with some time we will need find new planet. To my mind it's impossible, that humans are alone in universe. Maybe someday we will find another world with some race, I hope it will be friendly race. With the required technologies everything is possible, for humans currently it's impossible. But who knows what awaits us in the future, hope that we will find what we are looking for.
27 January 2019 at 17:50
Adrian Kashivskyy said…
I would love to participate in Planet Hunters project… if I only had a telescope. The universe fascinates me and I would love to be a part of any research that concerns it.

Given the inconceivable amount of stars in our universe (300 billion in our galaxy alone), and an even greater amount of planets and orbs, I find it extremely hard to believe that Earth was the only place where intelligent life evolved.

While I believe that a mega-structure like a Dyson sphere might have been built by a far more advanced (type II) civilization, I don’t think the anomaly of KIC 8462852 is caused by it. I’d love to be wrong, though. ;)
27 January 2019 at 19:41
Unknown said…
It is like dream comes true to be able to help with this kind of research. Finding new planets and thinking about what kind of resources it contains is exiting.

Well.. it is possible but it is hard to confirm.

I will try to follow news about this.
Speculating without is pointless until we will hear about real reason.
27 January 2019 at 23:11
Galimzhan Shtratbayev 2 said…
It is like dream comes true to be able to help with this kind of research. Finding new planets and thinking about what kind of resources it contains is exiting.

Well.. it is possible but it is hard to confirm.

I will try to follow news about this.
Speculating without is pointless until we will hear about real reason.
27 January 2019 at 23:15
Bartosz Lodziński said…
I’d definitely participate in Planet Hunters project, given I’d have time for it. If it would mean helping to expand our horizons and perhaps further our scientific progress, I’d be happy to help. I believe that idea that we’re alone in the universe is simply statistically improbable. We are not in open contact with extraterrestrial civilizations yet either because of The Great Filter (or similar reasoning, making it hard for even advanced civilizations to get in touch over the incredible distances of universe), or because of some “star council” deeming us not developed enough to participate in the affairs of the galaxy. The universe is vast, and what we’re observing from the comfort of our own tiny planet is but a fraction of what truly is happening out there – so the idea of civilizations much more advanced than ours that are capable of building structures capable of covering up a star doesn’t seem completely improbable if you consider the scale.
27 January 2019 at 23:55
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