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Its story

In Ursa Major, above one of the most recognisable quadrants of the northern sky, an orange class K star shines from some 522 light-years away. Its light set out around the year 1503, in the heart of the Italian Cinquecento, when Leonardo da Vinci was beginning to paint the Mona Lisa. Cooler than the Sun, its warm tone contrasts with the whites and blues of the famous Plough and adds a discreet note of chromatic melancholy.