Almaaz

Its story

Almaaz is one of the most enigmatic stars known —a yellowish variable in Auriga, 2,132 light-years away, that fades for almost two full years every twenty-seven. Astronomers took more than a century to understand that a dark disc of dust, perhaps with a companion embedded inside, drifts between us and its light. When this beam set out, Rome was falling and the Middle Ages were beginning in Europe.