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Its story

In Auriga, that winter figure driving its chariot across the north, shines a white star whose light set out two hundred and seventy-three years ago, at the height of the Enlightenment, as Diderot was gathering the encyclopaedists in Paris. Hotter and more luminous than the Sun, its surface near nine thousand degrees grants it that ivory tone reminiscent of moonlight on snow. Although the eye barely distinguishes it from a luminous whisper, it joins the bright retinue surrounding the great stars of the boreal winter sky.