Tiaki

Its story

Tiaki, a red giant 177 light-years from the Earth, shines in the southern constellation of Grus, the Crane, far beyond the reach of skies seen from the north of Europe. Its name comes from Māori, naming the guardian bird that watched over travellers who once crossed the Pacific by reading the stars at night, with no other map than the memory of their elders. Its reddened, time-cooled light left the star when Beethoven was beginning to write the first symphonies that would change the European musical language forever.