The Strangest (and Second-Strangest) Star in the Galaxy

Two ways to look at Tabby's Star: as intriguing data, or as an invitation to flights of fancy. (Credit: David Kipping, left; FantasyWallpapers.com, right) There’s an old saying: "Great discoveries don’t begin with ‘eureka!’; they begin with ‘that’s funny…’" I’ve long attributed the quote to the renowned science popularizer Isaac Asimov. Jason Wright gently corrects me. He has researched the line, he explains, and could find no evidence that Asimov ever spoke or wrote those words. It was a tidy encapsulation of what Wright is about. He is attracted to the peculiar side of science, and he is also a relentless sleuth. Wright, an astronomer at Penn State, is one of the lead researchers investigating the decidedly peculiar flickering object commonly known as Tabby's Star or, in the popular press, as the "alien megastructure star." The star's behavior is so puzzling that Wright included among the possible explanations that a ...