hip-44356

Its story

Coiled along the long body of Hydra, the largest constellation in the sky, pulses this orange K-type star, about 490 light-years distant. Its light began travelling around 1535, when Pizarro was founding Lima and Coverdale was printing the first complete English Bible. Cooler than the Sun yet more extended, it shines with the tone of a wood-fed flame. Looking at it is leaning into the dawn of the Renaissance, leaving medieval certainties behind.