Xi

Its story

Xi Octantis is a blue-white star roughly 46 million years old, in the southern constellation of the Octant — that mariner's wheel of an instrument that hides the celestial south pole. At 493 light-years, it pulses faintly: its magnitude wavers between 5.32 and 5.36, a variability uncovered by the Hipparcos mission. It shines with 360 solar luminosities at over 14,000 kelvin, a cold and steady glow near the axis of the southern sky.