A new study of the enigmatic 'alien megastructure' star seems to have solved the mystery and suggests that ETs are not to blame for its odd dimming effect.
The puzzling star first came to the world's attention back in October of 2015 when scientists noted that it was inexplicably dimming and posited that an alien structure of some kind could be the reason why.
By virtue of that exotic hypothesis, KIC 8462852, as it is known scientifically, sparked the public's imagination and led to a variety of attempts to unlock the mystery of its weird luminosity.
And now the results from a lengthy research project looking at the star may have cracked the case once and for all or, at least, eradicated aliens from the equation.
Researchers observing the star for nearly two years were able to capture data from four instances of KIC 8462852 as it dimmed and the insights were illuminating.
According to the newly-released findings, the star's flickering appears to have a largely prosaic explanation: dust.
The reasoning for this conclusion is that whatever is causing the star to dim is apparently somewhat translucent and, therefore, could not be a solid object such as a planet or, sadly, an ET structure.
Although the researchers pointed to dust as the most likely explanation for what this obstruction of the star's brightness might be, they conceded that there remain other astronomical possibilities which could be at work.
Unfortunately, though, unless something truly extraordinary were to occur with the star, the chances of KIC 8462852 being somehow connected to aliens looks to be dimmer than ever if not snuffed out completely.
Source: Space.com