hip-46283

Its story

Its light departed Vela while Galileo was aiming his makeshift telescope at the skies of Padua and discovering the Medicean moons. Four hundred and twenty-nine years later, that same beam grazes our retina, unaware of telescopes, satellites or spacecraft. It is a blue-white star burning several times hotter than the Sun, consuming its reserves with luminous haste. Modest to the naked eye, its temperature places it among the most vehement surfaces a human gaze can register.