This article originally appeared on IFLScience.
Take down the “Welcome Aliens!” bunting and pack away the cosmic red carpet. New observations have suggested that the “alien megastructure” spotted around a distant star is probably not alien at all, and likely has a more mundane (but probably still interesting) natural explanation. Here come the pretzels.
The star system KIC 8462852, 1,400 light-years away, hit the news big time when Jason Wright, an astrophysicist from Pennsylvania State University, suggested to The Atlantic that a huge dip in light seen from the star – up to 20 percent of its light – could be artificial in origin. Naturally, this had people dreaming of Dyson spheres, vast theoretical structures that could potentially harness the power of entire stars, and other exciting extraterrestrial constructs.
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