hip-34758

Its story

Canis Major shelters, about 467 light years away, a white A-type star, a child of the most photogenic spectral family in the sky. Its light departed around 1559, when Elizabeth I of England was being crowned and an era of maritime exploration was beginning. Hotter than the Sun and of a pristine white, it shines with the characteristic trait of absorbing hydrogen that defines its class. Although it lives in the firmament alongside stars as famous as Sirius, it keeps its own discreet personality among the rest of the celestial pack.