hip-52863

Its story

In the small Sextans, the astronomical sextant turned constellation, shines a red M-type giant about 546 light-years away. Its light set out around 1480, in the transition into the modern era, when Leonardo was sketching his flying machines in mirror-script notebooks. Far cooler than the Sun yet swollen to giant size, it radiates a slow, rusted red, almost like iron at low embers.