hip-3741

Hot blue star

Its story

The great body of Cetus, the Whale, conceals this hot blue-white B-class at three hundred and forty-three light-years. Its light departed around 1683, during the second Ottoman siege of Vienna, when troops led by King John III Sobieski of Poland broke the encirclement. A swift and burning star whose photons travelled —imaginarily— the breadth of Europe while empires were redrawing their maps.

Constellation: Cetus
Apparent magnitude: 5.57
Distance: 343.0 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 12.004° · Dec -21.722°
Catalogue: HIP 3741 · HD 4622

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Symbolic commemorative gift — no ownership, no IAU recognition.