Astronomers Puzzle Over Most Mysterious Star In The Galaxy

[Piorn]

Hopefully it's a species of peaceful, hedonistic and sexy humanoid aliens.

Because if it were anything else it would magically be bestiality.

....

That or you can always settle for a human cosplayer.

Noooo, come on.
The Harkness Test makes it perfectly clear that when it has human-like intellect, sexual maturity, and the ability to explicitely consent, then it's fair game.
It's only bestiality if it has a lower intelligence level from humans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUuvHPr4BGk
there is still very much a line

How horrifying. But that's still a question of taste, not morals. The Harkness Test applies to the ethical side of the issue.

The Harkness Test makes it perfectly clear that when it has human-like intellect, sexual maturity, and the ability to explicitely consent, then it's fair game.

So the alien sex test is determined by WWJHD?

If the first W stands for "Who", then yes, pretty much. wink, wink.

Of course, it's just a rule of thumb, but if you ever find yourself in the situation where you'd want to ask yourself these questions, then you might as well.

 

[Something Amyss]

If the first W stands for "Who", then yes, pretty much. wink, wink.

Of course, it's just a rule of thumb, but if you ever find yourself in the situation where you'd want to ask yourself these questions, then you might as well.

Yup. Who Would Jack Harkness Do?

Seems like a decent guide.

 

[The Great JT]

Hopefully it's a species of peaceful, hedonistic and sexy humanoid aliens.

Fingers crossed. Just a warning, if they intend to conquer us and use us as pets or whatever, I will sell out our species for a more favorable position.

 

[Pyrian]

This is a similar issue to the planetary collision theory which fails because not enough infrared light has been produced to allow for it.

I thought this argument was pretty weak. In the estimated distances, there'd need to be >1000 times as much material as observed to generate detectable infrared (per the study). So, dusty debris from a planetary collision of which we observed the occlusion of at least 0.1% of the dust, matches the data just fine. Details of the orbit and distance could make that 0.1% even smaller - potentially even negligible if it's not even gravitationally bound (with no observed periodicity, that can't be ruled out).

In effect, the material passing between the star and us could be virtually anywhere in the ~1500 light years between.

 

[spartan231490]

It's unique, but there's no reason to suggest that it's aliens. It could be any matter at all.

Not in the least. A planet the size of Jupiter would give 1% occlusion, this is 22%. A black hole could be large enough, but that poses its own problems- not the least of which is the occlusion's irregularity. The most likely explanation is something like a comet swarm, but even that doesn't perfectly fit. This may well be an astronomical phenomenon we've never encountered before, but even our best guesses don't quite match up (given our current understandings, anyway). In light of no known natural explanation fitting, suggesting an artificial one is perfectly reasonable.

Yes. It needs to be a large quantity of matter, but it doesn't need to be artificial space junk, as the alien claim is proposing. It could be anything, it could be a comet swarm, it could a huge number of planets in an alignment, it could be leftovers from some sort of astronomical collision. Exactly because it is such a unique phenomena, trying to make any kind of educated guess is foolish, and our inability to guess doesn't mean it isn't a natural phenomena. It's a great big universe out there filled with things we've only begun to understand. Weird shit happens, and even if it only happens one time in a thousand, when you look at a million stars, you're still going to see weird stuff 1,000 times.

 

[mtarzaim02]

...
So who's starting the betting? Vulcans, Turians, Minbari, Goa'uld...

Remnants of the Empire's Death Star space manufactury.

A blatant proof of another ignominious lie from Lucas: It wasn't that long ago in the end. Not even in far far away galaxy.

 

[Recusant]

It's unique, but there's no reason to suggest that it's aliens. It could be any matter at all.

Not in the least. A planet the size of Jupiter would give 1% occlusion, this is 22%. A black hole could be large enough, but that poses its own problems- not the least of which is the occlusion's irregularity. The most likely explanation is something like a comet swarm, but even that doesn't perfectly fit. This may well be an astronomical phenomenon we've never encountered before, but even our best guesses don't quite match up (given our current understandings, anyway). In light of no known natural explanation fitting, suggesting an artificial one is perfectly reasonable.

Yes. It needs to be a large quantity of matter, but it doesn't need to be artificial space junk, as the alien claim is proposing. It could be anything, it could be a comet swarm, it could a huge number of planets in an alignment, it could be leftovers from some sort of astronomical collision. Exactly because it is such a unique phenomena, trying to make any kind of educated guess is foolish, and our inability to guess doesn't mean it isn't a natural phenomena. It's a great big universe out there filled with things we've only begun to understand. Weird shit happens, and even if it only happens one time in a thousand, when you look at a million stars, you're still going to see weird stuff 1,000 times.

I imagine it'd be closer to a million times; just because we're familiar with weird stuff doesn't make it any less weird. This almost certainly isn't the work of aliens- but the only real argument against that is the lack of other evidence supporting it. So, though it's probably not the case, there's plenty of reason to suggest aliens.

 

[Ukomba]

...
So who's starting the betting? Vulcans, Turians, Minbari, Goa'uld...

Remnants of the Empire's Death Star space manufactury.

A blatant proof of another ignominious lie from Lucas: It wasn't that long ago in the end. Not even in far far away galaxy.

1500 years old, could be considered long time ago, but ya, wrong galaxy . Maybe it should be named the Sienar System.

I was going to make an Outbound Flight reference, but they never made it out of the Unknown Regions :/. hmmm... how about, it's the Asogians milky way base?

 

[Pyrian]

It wasn't that long ago in the end.

Well, we're still talking 1500 years. That's not exactly yesterday, either.

 

[kris40k]

All I know is I am starting a campaign to promote Giorgio A. Tsoukalos as God-Emperor of Mankind, as he has been trying to get us prepared to face the Xenos.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Can we send something that way?

Its too cool not to send a long term project that way.

 

[FalloutJack]

Can we send something that way?

Its too cool not to send a long term project that way.

Technically, Voyager is probably on the way, buuut it hasn't gotten very far.

OT: All joking aside, if it's not frigging aliens, I surmise it has more power to keep solid masses spinning in a stable enough manner than our system or even perhaps most systems, due to the size of the sun and the density of surrounding dark matter.

 

[Ambitiousmould]

Its either a C'tan eating a star, Unicorn, a dyson sphere or evidence of a Lovecraftian nightmare lumbering through space.

Nothing else need be considered!

Isn't a Dyson sphere that bit a Dyson hoover they're always banging on about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08inrwhgwk

I'll be honest, this is all way beyond me so I just commented to make that shit joke.