hip-49637

Its story

31 Leonis is an orange giant unusually poor in iron, classified K3.5 III Fe-1: its atmosphere carries the chemical fingerprint of a galaxy older than our own. It has swollen to 34 times the Sun's radius and pours out roughly 280 times its light, though at only 4.000 degrees it feels lukewarm beside our solar white. At 295 light-years, in the Lion's hind leg, it shines at magnitude 4.4 with a faint optical companion only telescopes can pry loose.