# Weird star changes in brightness due to... aliens?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 14, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624 "2015-10-14T13:23:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![EastUmpqua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eastumpqua/32/6025_2.png) [@EastUmpqua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EastUmpqua)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624/61 "2018-11-22T03:42:30Z")

</div>

> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> Oumuamua is traveling very, very, very slow for an interstellar spacecraft. On the order of 1/100th of one percent of the speed of light. Around half the speed of Voyager 2. If aliens sent it, they must have been [the Pakled](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pakled).

Our own spacecraft slow down when they reach their target. We’ve been observed. How do you know how fast it’s moving now? You seem to know a lot about interstellar spacecraft. Are you an alien?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624/62 "2018-11-22T03:44:06Z")

</div>

> [@Slash1972](#):
>
> Maybe when it gets out of range of anything we have that can detect it, it speeds up?

So you are proposing that it was just pretending to be a natural object by slowing down to a crawl while passing by, then sped up again? Wouldn’t have been much simpler to give the thing a very low albedo so that we wouldn’t notice it at all?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624/63 "2018-11-22T03:47:20Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> Our own spacecraft slow down when they reach their target. We’ve been observed. How do you know how fast it’s moving now? You seem to know a lot about interstellar spacecraft. Are you an alien?

First you say that the spacecraft used the sun to boost it’s speed. Now you are saying that it can speed up and slow down independently? Can you say a single coherent thing and stick to it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2018, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624/64 "2018-11-22T06:29:17Z")

</div>

Can we stick to the subject of this thread? This isn’t about oumuamua, it’s about Tabby’s star and now a similar star that’s been discovered. I’m pretty sure there’s an oumuamua thread if you want to discuss that. If there isn’t you can start one.

> [@davidm](#):
>
> They’ve apparently found another star with similar behavior.
> 
> [Have Astronomers Found Another "Alien Megastructure" Star? | Scientific American](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/have-astronomers-found-another-alien-megastructure-star/)

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weird-star-changes-in-brightness-due-to-aliens/734624.md?page=3)