CALIFORNIA, iNews.id – Astronomers have discovered star giant flashes towards the center galaksi bima sakti. The star is called VVV-WIT-08 and is 25,000 light-years from Earth.
Astronomers say it’s not uncommon for stars to change brightness when they beat or are blocked by other stars in a binary system. It is rare for a star to dim for a few months and then brighten again.
Astronomers believe VVV-WIT-08 could belong to a new class of “blinking giant” binary star systems, in which a giant star about 100 times as massive as the Sun is eclipsed once every few decades by an invisible orbital companion.
The companion orbiting the star could be another star or it could be a planet surrounded by an opaque disk that covers the giant star causing it to disappear and reappear in the sky.
Study co-author Dr. Sergey Koposov said it was extraordinary they observed a dark, large and elongated object passing between it and a distant star. For now, all scientists can do is speculate about what object passed between us and the star.
Editor: Dini Listiyani
