Iot

Its story

Iota Antliae inhabits the Air Pump, a constellation traced by the Frenchman Lacaille in the eighteenth century to honour the instruments of the new experimental science. At 190 light-years, it is an orange K-type giant, one of the more visible lights in a corner of the southern sky poor in bright stars. Its warm hue stands out in this relative emptiness, where mythological figures gave way to the symbols of the Enlightenment.