hip-41260

Its story

In the starry waters of Puppis shines an orange K-class giant, set some four hundred and sixty-eight light-years away. Its coppery light departed as, in the heart of the Spanish Golden Age, Velázquez was painting in Madrid and Galileo had only just turned his spyglass toward Jupiter's moons. It is one of those stars that have left the calm of their youth to swell into slow giants, far larger than the Sun though cooler at the surface.