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Its story

In Andromeda, the chained princess of the autumn sky, shines an orange star of K type. Its light set out one hundred and eighty-four years ago, when nineteenth-century telescopes were beginning to suspect that certain nebulae might in fact be other galaxies. Cooler and redder than the Sun, it unfolds a warm, steady amber proper to long-lived stars. It is a discreet glimmer near the mythic figure that also harbours, much further off, that other milky smudge we now call the Andromeda galaxy.