hip-15890

Its story

More than 2,000 light-years away, in discreet Camelopardalis, beats a red star whose brightness shifts over time. Its light departed as the Western Roman Empire entered its twilight and Germanic peoples crossed the frozen Rhine. It is a cool class M giant, with surfaces below 4,000 K, and its variability reveals slow pulsations in the outer layers. Each cycle is a stellar breath that repeats over months or years.