M
Mike Wehner
Guest
When astronomers peer into the depths of the Milky Way galaxy, which is our home, they can see a lot of stuff going on. There are endless stars swirling masses of gas and other features, but one light source, in particular, has caught the attention of researchers that are trying to understand exactly what it is. It's a star... but it's "blinking." The object is called VVV-WIT-08, and it might belong to an entirely new class of giant stars called a "blinking giant." That is if scientists can figure out what is making it appear to blink.
Observing the star isn't easy, as it's roughly 25,000 light-years away and is positioned between Earth and the galactic center. The center of the Milky Way, as is the case with most galaxies, is densely packed with stars, so spotting individual stars and observing how they behave can be challenging. In the case of VVV-WIT-08, observations took months due to the star's exceedingly strange habit of growing dimmer and dimmer for a long period of time and then returning to full brightness.
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Something mysterious is blinking near the center of our galaxy originally appeared on BGR.com on Fri, 11 Jun 2021 at 15:11:11 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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