The best science story this week has been about KIC 8462852. Here's why...

Ol' KIC is a star located almost 1500 light years away from earth. The Kepler space telescope has been looking at KIC 8462852, among other stars, as it looks for planets, so that when the Kardashians finally get to be too much for EVERYBODY - we can move. According to Popular Science, the way the Kepler finds planets is that it looks at stars. When a planet moves in front of star, it causes that star to dim slightly for a few hours or a few days, depending on the planets orbit, and it happens on a regular basis. This method has been very successful in finding planets.

Well, KIC 8462852 has proven to be a little different.

KIC 8462852 (yeah, they should give it a real name) really gets dim and it gets dim for different lengths of time - like between 5 and 80 days. Wuzzupwitdat? Researchers say it's not a planet causing the dimness or rings of debris like Jupiter owns. The speculate it's PROBABLY a bunch of comets pulled into orbit around the star. But it some are speculating it COULD be "alien megastructures" orbiting the star.

So, they're planning to fire up radio telescopes in New Mexico and West Virginia to see if they can locate sounds of intelligence. Like their local country radio station morning show.

 

Banana Don and Stephanie McCoy amuse and thrill you every weekday morning from 5:30 – 10AM on the radio at 100.7 WITL.

Banana Don can be reached via email at don.jefferson@townsquaremedia.com and on Twitter at @WITLBananaDon and @WITLFM. Also, Facebook friend Banana Don and Stephanie at Facebook.com/BananaStephanie and Facebook.com/WITLFM.

 

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