Bet

Its story

Beta Fornacis lights the small constellation of the Furnace, invented by Lacaille in the eighteenth century during his great mapping of the southern sky from the Cape of Good Hope. It is a yellow G-type giant some 173 light-years away, an aged successor to the solar model that has long left behind the quiet burning of hydrogen. In a sky region nearly empty of bright stars, its golden tone serves as a humble pilot light.