A giant star called VVV-WIT-08 exhibited a smooth, eclipse-like drop in brightness to a depth of 97% in 2012; minimum brightness occurred in April 2012 and the total event duration was a few hundred days, according to an analysis of data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea survey (VVV), a project using the British-built VISTA telescope in Chile and operated by ESO.

It may belong to a new class of ‘blinking’ binary system, where a giant star — 100 times larger than the Sun — is eclipsed once every few decades by an as-yet unseen orbital companion.