VISUAL ARCHIVE / IMAGE STORY
A Star’s Light, an Unseen Cause
An imagined luminous star and a small foreground silhouette introduce the question of where a disturbance occurs.
On May 14, 2023, an optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence recorded two extraordinary changes in the light of HD 89389, a star in Ursa Major. Their nearly identical structures remain unexplained. Artwork is a conceptual visualization, not a direct observation.
THE OBSERVATION
What we can actually see.
The 2025 journal paper reports the HD 89389 pair and a comparison with an earlier record. A subsequent conference paper discusses three paired events in different stars and proposes synchronized telescopes. The 4.4-second separation belongs to the two observed disturbances in HD 89389’s light; it is not a measured gravitational-lensing delay.
THE ILLUSTRATION
What the artwork imagines.
The image does not resolve HD 89389 or reveal an actual obstruction. Its stellar surface, nearby silhouette and cosmic background are invented. The artwork is not a direct astronomical observation.
FROM THE ILLUSTRATED ARTICLE
The story that inspired it.
The article follows an unusual optical record into competing explanations and a possible timing experiment. On May 14, 2023, an optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence recorded two extraordinary changes in the light of HD 89389, a star in Ursa Major. Their nearly identical structures remain unexplained. Artwork is a conceptual visualization, not a direct observation.
Read A Star Blinked Twice. Whatever Caused It May Be Much Closer to Earth.CHECK THE RECORD
The image interprets the research below. Follow the original work for the measurements and limits behind the scene.
Stanton (2025): Unexplained starlight pulses found in optical SETI searches — Acta Astronautica Stanton (2025): Telescope Arrays to Solve a Double Optical Pulse Mystery — SAS proceedings, pp. 79–84OTHER IMAGE STORIES
Watching Between the Exposures
A Pair of Disturbances, Imagined
The Mark Shared by Titan and Pluto