There is a giant 'blinking' star near the centre of our galaxy

15 Jun 2021

There is a giant ‘blinking’ star near the centre of our galaxy

Hey there, young stargazers! Get ready to blast off into an out-of-this-world adventure! Astronomers have just made an incredible discovery—a gigantic star in our galaxy, the Milky Way, that likes to play a game of cosmic hide-and-seek.
It's like a star that blinks! How cool is that?
This blinking star is located about 25,000 light-years away from our planet Earth. That's an enormous distance, even for spaceships! To keep an eye on this star, astronomers used a super powerful telescope called VISTA in Chile. It's like having a pair of cosmic binoculars!
Imagine this: the star's brightness went down, down, down, as if someone turned off a celestial light switch. But then, like magic, it lit up again after about 200 days. It's like the star is saying, "Tada! I'm back!" The astronomers gave this mind-boggling event a fancy name: VVV-WIT-08. But they added a fun twist—WIT stands for "What is this?" They're just as curious as we are!
Let's dive into the details and uncover this fascinating space mystery.
Cosmic Blinkers: Unveiling the Mystery of VVV-WIT-08

Now, hold on tight, because this is where things get even more exciting! Astronomers think that VVV-WIT-08 might belong to a whole new group of stars. It's like discovering a new species in space! This special star might be part of what they call a 'blinking giant' binary star system. But what does that mean?
Well, it's a star system where a gigantic star, which is about 100 times bigger than our Sun, gets covered up by another object that orbits around it. Mysterious, isn't it? But here's the twist: they're not exactly sure what that orbiting object is. It could be another star, just like the Sun, or even a colossal planet!
But wait, there's more! This isn't the first time astronomers have stumbled upon these blinking giants. They've already discovered two other stars that play hide-and-seek with their brightness.

One of them is called Epsilon Aurigae. It's a super-duper-sized star that gets partly eclipsed by a gigantic disc of dust every 27 years, causing it to dim. Talk about a starry spectacle!
The second one is named TYC 2505-672-1, and it was spotted a few years back. These discoveries hint that there could be many more of these fascinating "blinking giants" out there, waiting to be found and studied.

So, my curious cosmic explorers, isn't it amazing how the universe keeps surprising us? With every new discovery, we uncover mysteries that make our imaginations soar. Who knows what else is waiting to be revealed among the twinkling stars? Keep looking up, dream big, and let your curiosity reach for the galaxies beyond!

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Hey there, young stargazers! Get ready to blast off into an out-of-this-world adventure! Astronomers have just made an incredible discovery—a gigantic star in our galaxy, […]

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