Help Solve the Mystery Behind Our Galaxy’s Most Mysterious Star

Want to be part of something huge? Join the community of the curious and help astronomers canvass the sky for answers about “the most mysterious star in our galaxy”: Tabby’s Star, whose “dipping” starlight may or may not be caused by an alien structure.

The star’s namesake, Tabetha Boyajian ’03, is an astronomer and postdoc fellow at Yale University who is crowd-funding new observations through a Kickstarter campaign with the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network to find out whether the star is surrounded by a swarm of comets or an alien megastructure.

“We’d love to have the College community join the search,” says Boyajian. “There’s something really weird going on out there. Together we can figure it out!”

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Tabby’s Star has had the scientific community puzzled for a while now. But ever since The Atlantic broke the news about Tabby’s Star and its mysterious behavior, the public has been intrigued as well. Boyajian has even enlisted the help of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute to try to figure this out. As she explains in her February 2016 TED Talk, “We had to find a way to rule out aliens.”

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Whatever looms way out in the galaxy, Boyajian thinks it promises to be fascinating.

“We’re in a situation that could unfold to be a natural phenomenon we don’t understand or an alien technology we don’t understand,” Boyajian says. Either way, you can help!

There’s no experience necessary – only curiosity is required. So, check out the Kickstarter campaign and join this community of stargazers to discover something big.