hip-37853

Its story

It belongs to Puppis and ranks among the catalog's nearest stars to the Sun, at just under fifty light-years. Its light set out around 1976, when the Viking probe was first landing on Mars and sending back the first panoramic photograph of its surface. It is a yellow G-class star, kin in temperature and color to the Sun itself, though somewhat older and chemically richer in history. To look at it is to glimpse a distant mirror —a quiet neighbour in the immensity.