hip-30463

Its story

On the southern easel of Pictor, a constellation outlined by Lacaille, shines this white A-type star, about 300 light-years distant. Its light began the journey around 1725, when Vivaldi was publishing The Four Seasons and Peter the Great had just died in Saint Petersburg. Hotter and brighter than the Sun, its white surface fires off photons with elegance. We see it today through the eyes of late Baroque Europe.