hip-2159

Its story

In the modest constellation of the Sculptor, suspended near the south galactic pole, glows an orange giant 574 light-years away. Its light set out as the Portuguese were rounding the Cape of Good Hope and opening the maritime route to the Indies. A class-K sun, cooler and older than ours, its coppery glow is silhouetted against one of the cleanest and darkest corners of the sky, ideal for gazing beyond the galaxy.