SETI to Devote $100 Million on 'Alien Megastructure' Tabby's Star Research

The 'Alien Megastructure' star also known as Tabby's star still captures the interest of scientists and alien hunters alike. And today, many organizations are spending money in further studying the celestial object.

Astronomers are adamant in trying to find signs of alien life if there's any in Tabby's star. The Breakthrough Listen initiative will reportedly spend $100 million to search for any signs of alien life in Tabby's star for the next 10 years. The speculations of an alien civilization in Tabby's star are what make the mission enticing.

Tabby's star will be investigated using the Green Bank Telescope located in West Virginia as announced last Tuesday, Oct. 25. "The Green Bank Telescope is the largest fully steerable radio telescope on the planet, and it's the largest, most sensitive telescope that's capable of looking at Tabby's star given its position in the sky," Breakthrough Listen co-director Andrew Siemion, also a director at Berkeley Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, said in a statement.

"We've deployed a fantastic new SETI instrument that connects to that telescope, that can look at many gigahertz of bandwidth simultaneously and many, many billions of different radio channels all at the same time so we can explore the radio spectrum very, very quickly," Siemion added.

The mission will conduct eight hours per nights for the next two months starting this Wednesday, Oct. 26. Astronomers are hopeful that with funding, there will be more data gathered about Tabby's star.

Astronomers are also hopeful to find evidence of an advanced alien civilization in Tabby's star. The interest in the region sparked when astronomers detected the unusual light behavior, something that no one has ever seen before. The star dims in such a way that no other star does, according to a report.

The object is known as KIC 8462852 and something unusual is also blocking the Earth's view of Tabby's star. Simeon also added that if there are no alien civilization in Tabby's star, they are not to overlook the strange activities in the region and that whatever they may find, it will be beneficial for science.