Astronomers have spotted a giant 'blinking' star towards the center of the Milky Way, more than 25,000 light years away.
An international team of astronomers observed the star, VVV-WIT-08, decreasing in brightness by a factor of 30, so that it nearly disappeared from the sky. While many stars change in brightness because they pulsate or are eclipsed by another star in a
binary system, it's exceptionally rare for a star to become fainter over a period of several months and then brighten again.
The researchers believe that VVV-WIT-08 may belong to a new class of "blinking giant"
binary star system, where a
giant star 100 times larger than the Sun is eclipsed once every few decades by an as-yet unseen orbital companion. The companion, which may be another star or a planet, is surrounded by an opaque disc, which covers the giant star, causing it to disappear and reappear in the sky. The study is published in
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
