Phi-3

Its story

Phi-3 Ceti glows with an orange light in the Whale, that long amphibious figure winding beneath Pisces and Aries. It is a K-type giant some 551 light-years away, already in an advanced stage of life: its core hydrogen is exhausted, and its cool atmosphere radiates the quiet copper tone typical of aging stars. The light reaching us tonight set out toward the end of the fifteenth century, in the years when the first European caravels were crossing an Atlantic still lacking accurate charts.