Sadalmelik

Its story

Sadalmelik is a yellow supergiant 523 light-years away whose name, from the Arabic «saʿd al-malik», means «the king's luck». It shines as the main light of Aquarius, the Water Bearer, pouring his stream across the autumn sky. Modest as it looks to the naked eye, in luminosity it equals thousands of suns: distance, not its flame, dims it. When this light set out, Europe was still debating the heliocentric theory.