hip-42459

Variable star

Its story

A variable blue star in Vela, without name or legend. Its light set off 445 years ago, when Spain ruled the seas and Cervantes was barely a soldier wounded at Lepanto. Its brightness shifts to a barely perceptible rhythm, swelling like a deep breath. A massive B-type, many times hotter than the Sun, it burns fast and lives intensely in the southern sky.

Constellation: Vela
Apparent magnitude: 5.45
Distance: 445.0 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 129.849° · Dec -53.440°
Catalogue: HIP 42459 · HD 74071

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Symbolic commemorative gift — no ownership, no IAU recognition.