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Astronomers and space experts have been baffled by the presence of a star in the middle of the Milky Way that continues to flash in and out of existence. While many stars change their brightness because they are pulsating or obscured by other stars, this star has particularly intrigued scientists because it dims for several months and then suddenly revives in brightness. The star called VVV-WIT-08 is located in the center of the Milky Way, about 25,000 light-years from planet Earth.
After years of observation and analysis, astronomers have speculated that the star could be a new class of “blinking giant” binary system, which gets banned after every few decades. While the team is still researching what might be hiding the star, their observations revealed that a companion of the star, which could be a planet or another star, is covered in a opaque disk.
‘What is that’
Professor Philip Lucas of the University of Hertfordshire spoke of the same, saying that they sometimes find variable stars that “do not fit into any specific category, which we call ‘What is this?'” ‘, or ‘WIT’ wills. Further detailing, he said experts had yet to figure out “how these flashing giants emerged,” adding that it was exciting to see such discoveries from VVV after “many years of planning and data collection.”
While VVV-WIT-08 continues to pique the curiosity of the scientific community, NASA recently shared a stunning image of two galaxies orbiting in a galaxy system 140 million light-years from Earth. Shock waves vibrate through both galaxies as they merge, setting off waves of new star formation, according to the US space agency. Some of these stars are enormous, and their lives are short but violent. There are two elliptical elements in close proximity that shoot beams of blue X-rays that illuminate the surrounding areas, according to the image. 25 powerful X-ray sources are scattered throughout the galactic system, according to data from NASA’s Chandra Observatory.
Photo: Amanda Smith/Cambridge University
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