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The Scramble: Trump's Trip, And The Alien Megastructure That's Coming To Kill Us All*

NASA
A NASA illustration showing a star behind a shattered comet.

Over the weekend, President Trump spoke to leaders from Muslim countries in Riyadh. Today and tomorrow, he visits Israel and the West Bank. And Wednesday, it's on to Rome and The Vatican. The Scramble looks at the religious side of Trump's first presidential trip abroad.

And: There's a star in the sky, called KIC 8462852, that twinkles, occasionally, in a way that NASA and astronomers everywhere don't really understand. It could be that there is, sometimes, between this star and us, a huge swarm of giant comets. Or something. Or another (much less likely) theory is that some sort of alien megastructure occasionally eclipses KIC 8462852 from our point of view.

In any case, the star got to twinkling again over the weekend. The Scramble checks in on it.

*It's highly unlikely that there even is an alien megastructure. And even if there is one, it almost certainly isn't coming to kill us. Probably. You have to figure.

GUESTS:

  • Loren Grush - Science reporter for The Verge
  • Mark Silk - Director of the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.

Jonathan is a producer for ‘The Colin McEnroe Show.’ His work has been heard nationally on NPR and locally on Connecticut Public’s talk shows and news magazines. He’s as likely to host a podcast on minor league baseball as he is to cover a presidential debate almost by accident. Jonathan can be reached at jmcnicol@ctpublic.org.

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