hip-115144

Its story

An unnamed orange star in Aquarius, distant and discreet. Its light has been crossing the cosmos for 1394 years —it set off around the year 632, the very year Muhammad died in Medina— and reaches us with a faint golden glow. Cooler than the Sun yet far larger, it is a K-type giant in full expansion. An ancient beacon, whose signal began its journey just as human history was entering a new era.