If the star is weird in a couple of ways, I'd bet that there's a single cause for both. Even if it's not aliens, it's still pretty cool because it means there are still some phenomena in the universe we don't understand.
I wonder if it could possibly be a planetary collision that is causing the light dips. It could explain the increase in dimming if the debris is spreading and causing more light to be blocked as it increases in size.
We understand more than we ever have in human history, but I suspect that what we still don't understand about the universe could fill a gas giant and then some.
not so fast... Over the weekend a call went out to astronomers to point their telescopes toward star KIC 8462852, which is also known as Tabby’s Star or the “Alien Megastructure" star. That’s because researchers suspected the star was beginning to dim—something astronomers have been waiting to observe since 2015, reports Sarah Fecht at Popular Science. These latest observations, however, could help researchers finally come to an answer. As Grush reports, if the cause is a comet storm, then the comets will orbit very close to the star, heating them up enough to show up in infrared images. If it is an alien megastructure, well, we’re not sure what the would look like. “That theory is still a valid one,” Muterspaugh tells Grush. “We would really hate to go to that, because that’s a pretty major thing. It’d be awesome of course, but as scientists we’re hoping there’s a natural explanation.” More
