An artist’s concept of a ring of dust orbiting Tabby’s Star. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

About
four years ago, one star gained notoriety when some astronomers suggested its
weird light pattern could be signs of artificial “alien megastructures” blocking the
star’s light. Though scientists generally say that clouds of gas and dust are most
likely the culprit, the source of that gas and dust remains a mystery.

One possibility is that the star, formally called KIC 8462852, kidnapped an icy “