Mirzam

Its story

Mirzam is the «announcer», the blue star that rises in the sky just before Sirius, the brightest of all. Its Arabic name —«al-mirzam», the herald— comes from rising a few minutes ahead of its bigger sister in Canis Major and, for centuries, warning shepherds that night was entering its most luminous stretch. A Beta Cephei variable 492 light-years away, it pulses within while appearing still.