Have Scientists Found Proof of Alien Life?

The truth may indeed be “out there”. While most accounts of UFOs and little green men have conclusively been shown to be hoaxes, delusions, or the misidentifications of man-made and natural phenomena, astronomers may have found tantalising evidence of an alien civilisation, floating through the vastness of the cosmos. Over this series of articles, the Experimentor_4u blog will examine just how much truth there is to this story.

The Search for E.T.

While most research to find evidence for extra-terrestrial life has focused on Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, there are ongoing efforts to assess the presence of life in the star systems and galaxies outside the boundaries of our own solar system. This has primarily been an effort to find evidence of water via spectral analysis, or by picking up faint radio signals from possible alien civilisations, until now. A study by Jason Wright, an astronomer working out of Penn State University, may indicate that a huge artificial construction is orbiting a distant star.

An Unusual Sun
 
The star, KIC8462852, can be found sitting innocuously between Cygnus and Lyra, two famous constellations. Observed through the Kepler telescope – designed to detect features of star systems including planets – KIC8462852 is a very strange proposition. Kepler has discovered many 'exoplanets', but something startled researchers in this instance; the light from the star behaves in a way unlike any other previously observed. Kepler works by detecting flickering in a star's light which indicates that a planet has moved across its face, momentarily reducing the amount of light which reaches our planet; as the infographic below shows, Kepler can detect all kinds of astronomical data. The flickering of KIC8462852 is different, however; it flickers more often than it should. Some scientists are entertaining the possibility that this is caused by a hypothetical construction called a Dyson Swarm.




Could it Be Evidence of Alien Life?

A Dyson Swarm has been predicted as a way which advanced civilisations could harness the power of a star, by building orbiting structures which collect the rays of the sun much like millions of solar panels. This has been put forward as a serious explanation for the flickering KIC8462852, but there are more grounded explanations such as a planet which has broken up into pieces, or other debris such as comets. Whether it really is an alien construction, only further research will reveal. Stay tuned for the second part of this series about Kepler to discover what experts say would be the true tell-tale signs of the existence of an alien civilisation.