hip-52478

Its story

39 Ursae Majoris shines white as an A-type star in the Great Bear, the immense figure whose dipper has guided generations of observers toward Polaris. Hotter and more luminous than the Sun, it offers the bluish sharpness characteristic of A-class stars. From 370 light-years, the light arriving tonight set out around 1656, when Christiaan Huygens was discovering Saturn's rings with a telescope he had built himself in The Hague.