Gresham College:
Is It Aliens?: The Most Unusual Star in the Galaxy

Boyajian’s star, a faint and unprepossessing presence in the constellation of Cygnus, attracted astronomers’ attention when it began to flicker alarmingly.

Gresham Professor of Astronomy and BBC Sky at Night presenter, Chris Lintott, will discuss explanations for its behaviour, from disintegrating comets to alien megastructures, and consider how modern astronomy hunts for the truly unusual objects in the Universe.

For this task, the involvement of large numbers of volunteers – citizen scientists – is essential, for example via the Zooniverse platform, which invites you to participate in classifying galaxies and discovering planets.