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Its story

Among the southern veils of the constellation Vela burns a blue B-type star. Its light left almost 696 years ago, in the heart of the 14th century, while the Black Death swept Europe and Sienese painters illuminated panels with gold. Far hotter than the Sun, it belongs to that fleeting and fiery breed whose lives are counted in just a few million years. Its blue light cuts through the interstellar dust like a blade, a reminder that the southern sky holds some of the fiercest furnaces of the firmament.