What was the mystery object in space that blocked the light of a star for more than six months?

I think (no astrophysicist, me) that the key here is that whatever this was took 200 days to clear the star. A smaller object closer could certainly eclipse the star, but that duration speaks to something truly enormous. And when you say that about astronomy, you are getting unthinkably huge.

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Hey Doc, I’ve put on a few pandemic pounds for sure, but that’s simply uncalled for

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Since “unthinkably huge” is not a likely size, could not it be a reasonably small object moving in exactly the right way?

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It’s not the size of the … uh … thing that matters, but how it moves about?

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An incomplete rotating Dyson sphere?

If it’s an object rather than a dense cloud, big enough to block a red giant, then there are the problems of (a) why isn’t it burning too? (b) if it’s a “cold” burned-out clinker, it can only be so massive before it has to either blow off mass in nova/supernova explosions or continue collapsing into a black hole.

They need to have a look with an IR telescope in the dim period to get an idea of how hot the blocking material is.

eta: Or maybe it’s the OnOff Star, with Spiderhome orbiting it?

I agree, but the fact that the line was from the journalist and not a quote from a scientist made me wonder whether it was an assumption of the journo. I was worried about Igon values coming in to play.

No mention of unthinkably huge objects here, just discs, which makes much more sense.

The Turtle Moves!

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