Rho

Its story

Rho Tucanae adorns the small constellation of the Toucan, another of the tropical birds that Dutch navigators carried to the sky from the East Indies. A yellow-white type F star some 134 light-years away, it offers a light akin to the Sun's but somewhat hotter, a discreet austral companion. Near its figure shines the Small Magellanic Cloud, satellite galaxy of the Milky Way that shares with it the luminous silence of the southern sky.