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Its story

51 Aquarii is a white A-type star about 406 light-years away, in the celestial pitcher of the Water-Bearer. Its 5.8-magnitude glow makes it a quiet companion to the constellation s better-known stars. Its light, set out at the start of the seventeenth century, travelled while Galileo was mapping the Moon and Kepler reordering the solar system; it now reaches us with the cool white edge of a distant beacon.