[ExI] parallax on tabby's star tomorrow

[spike]

Cool, the Gaia data will be released tomorrow on a parallax measurement of
the distance to Tabby's star.

 

We have inferred its distance by its brightness, but if there was already
something dimming the star by the time we started observing it a century
ago, our estimates would be off (overestimated the distance.)  If there is
some unknown something that can cause a temporary brightening (can't imagine
it but science discoveries are all about can't-imagine-it observations) we
can know we underestimated the distance:

 

https://disownedsky.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-gaia-data-release-and-tabbys-st
ar.html

 

This could be exciting stuff.

 

spike

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