Eta

Its story

Eta Gruis is an orange K2 giant enriched in carbon and nitrogen, a clue to its advanced evolution. It has swelled to 33 solar radii and emits 355 times more energy than the Sun at around 4,500 kelvin. 415 light-years away, it drifts among the plumage of the Crane, a southern constellation devised by Dutch navigators in the sixteenth century from the birds they watched circling the Cape.