hip-10296

Its story

In Aries, first figure of the zodiac, shines this orange K-type giant seven hundred forty-six light years away. Its light began its journey around the thirteenth century, when Thomas Aquinas was writing his Summa Theologica in Paris and medieval scholasticism was reaching its intellectual peak. Cooler and far more voluminous than the Sun, it radiates with the coppery glow of aged giants, occupying a discreet place in a constellation the spring equinox marked for centuries as the gateway of the astronomical year.