hip-39360

Variable star

Its story

About 480 light years away, in the rich constellation of Puppis, a variable white A-type star fluctuates subtly in brightness. Its light departed around 1546, when Tycho Brahe had just been born and European astronomy was about to refine its measurements as never before. Hotter than the Sun and of a pristine white, it reflects in its spectrum the dominance of absorbing hydrogen. Puppis, one of the pieces into which the old ship Argo was divided, lends it a sky loaded with southern nebulae and clusters.

Constellation: Puppis
Apparent magnitude: 5.52
Distance: 479.7 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 120.687° · Dec -41.310°
Catalogue: HIP 39360 · HD 66624

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Symbolic commemorative gift — no ownership, no IAU recognition.