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Its story

Within the celestial Giraffe, Camelopardalis —that shy, silent figure of the northern sky— beats an orange star of type K, cooler and older than the Sun. Its light took some 273 years to reach us: it set out when Voltaire was publishing his Philosophical Letters and the French Baroque tuned its minuets at Versailles. It appears today as a warm ember, almost hidden among the few stars that trace the animal's long neck.