hip-50685

Its story

In Ursa Major, that familiar caravan of the northern sky, a white A-type star pulses 402 light-years away. Its variable light set out when Cervantes was finishing Don Quixote and the Spanish language was conquering the world from Madrid. Hotter and more luminous than the Sun, its glow shifts with a discreet rhythm, almost like a slow sigh. It is a quiet old acquaintance among the seven most famous stars of the northern sky.