‘OUT OF NOWHERE’

Scientists Discover Humongous Blinking Star at Center of Milky Way

The star, named VVV-WIT-08, is 100 times bigger than the sun and 25,000 light years away.

Scientists have found a humongous blinking star at the center of the Milky Way, the Guardian reports. The star, named VVV-WIT-08, is 100 times bigger than the sun and 25,000 light years away. The star perplexed many scientists in 2012, when it appeared to dim over the course of a few hundred days before restoring to its original brightness. “[The dimming] appeared to come out of nowhere,” said Dr. Leigh Smith, a Cambridge University scientist. The dimming, which may have been caused by an orbiting planet or something blocking out the light from the star, was captured by a telescope in the European Southern Observatory in Chile. VVV-WIT-08 is one of many stars categorized under “WIT” or “What is this,” which is a classification that scientists use when the star does not fit under any other groupings.