Alp

Its story

Alpha Caeli is the brightest light of its tiny constellation, the Chisel —one of the figures that French astronomer Lacaille carved into the southern sky in the eighteenth century to honour the instruments of the workshop. Just 66 light-years away, it is a double system: an F2V primary with a debris disc detected around it, and a small red dwarf companion that flares up in sudden bursts. The pair takes 1110 years to complete one orbit.