hip-45920

Its story

In Vela, that fragment of the ancient ship Argo which modern cartography split into pieces, shines an A-type white star. Its light set out two hundred and sixty-five years ago, mid-eighteenth century, when Linnaeus was finishing his ordering of plants and animals into a universal system. Hotter than the Sun, it gives off a cool white glow. It belongs to the celestial rigging of a mythical vessel, a lesser light on the canvas spread above the southern seas, where an old wind still seems to blow.