I am working on the star KIC 8462852 (a.k.a. Tabby's star) and looking in depth at the cometary explanation to the dips. I found that while comet swarms can fit the unusual dips, the fit requires a large number of objects and rare events such as the break up of a Ceres sized object to explain. The most recent dips (summer 2017) show clear color dependence of dip depth which does suggest dust. So Tabby's star is still quite an interesting and mysterious object.

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Model Mid-IR Transmission Spectra

I am studying young "dipper" stars which are stars that display drops in observed flux in their light curves, typically lasting for a few days. These dips are very likely due to dust in the inner region of the accretion disk and reveals information about accretion processes of young stars. For low mass star, we are likely observing the dusty accretion stream as they cross our view of the star. However, for intermediate mass stars, the streams are too hot for dust to survive so other structures in the disk must be the cause of the dips.