Are These Strange Lights in Space Caused by Aliens?

Strange lights observed a couple of weeks ago triggered a rash of speculations that the phenomena may involve alien presence. However, recent findings from scientists indicated otherwise.

"A research team from Iowa State University looked at data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and found that the strange dips in light, which were initially theorized to be possible structures, were likely a 'swarm of comets'," CNN reported.

KIC 8462852, the code name given to the said system, had undergone monitoring sice October this year after its unusual light patterns were found by Planet Hunters, an astronomy crowdsourcing domain. The group used the Kepler Telescope of NASA in discovering the system. However, the said device only used "visible light" to spot the star. The Spitzer telescope searched via infrared light.

"It's possible that a family of comets is traveling on a very long, eccentric orbit around the star," NASA explained in a released statement. "At the head of the pack would be a very large comet, which would have blocked the star's light."

However, further studies need to be done to confirm these findings, especially as it involved a "very strange star," as described by the study's lead author, Iowa State Associate Professor Massimo Marengo.

In October, the said anomaly got the attention of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute - an non-profit that aimed to gather information that could enrich existing knowledge about the origins of life. As such, it also launched its own investigations of Tabby's Star, another name for the system.

"Using the Allen Telescope Array, which is comprised of a large number of small dishes used to monitor wavelengths, SETI Institute said it has not detected radio signals," KTLA 5 reported earlier this month. "The telescope, located in the Cascade Mountains in California, was searching for two different types of radio signals - possible markers for technology."

This, however, still does not discount the potential existence of intelligent life outside planet Earth.

"There is estimated to be in our galaxy alone a trillion planets. And we can see 100 billion galaxies," explained senior astronomer Seth Shostak. "It's believed that one in 10 stars may have a habitable world capable of supporting life. That's a lot of real estate."

"The history of astronomy tells us that every time we thought we had found a phenomenon due to the activities of extraterrestrials, we were wrong," Shostak went on to say. "But although it's quite likely that this star's strange behavior is due to nature, not aliens, it's only prudent to check such things out."

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