Muliphein

Its story

Muliphein shines in Canis Major, the constellation of Orion's hunting dog presided over by Sirius. Its name, from the Arabic «muḥlifayn», alludes curiously to «the two stars that cause false oaths» — an old Arabic label applied, by confusion, to several stars of similar brightness. A blue-white B-class star about 442 light-years away, it is a hot, young bonfire burning far off in the southern night.