This discovery is a big deal for understanding how planets form and evolve.
As researcher Anastasios Tzanidakis put it, the flickering was due to copious rock and dust passing in front of the star, consistent with debris from a planetary collision.
Events like this are hardly ever seen because they play out over decades.
The team thinks studying these cosmic crashes could reveal how planetary systems, maybe even ones like ours, come together and what it takes to make worlds that can support life.