hip-53726

Its story

At 827 light-years, in the Great Bear whose dipper traces the celestial north, burns a red giant whose light set out at the beginning of the twelfth century, when Cistercian monastic workshops were spreading their network across Europe. Its cool, enormous atmosphere radiates a deep red, sign of an aged star. It glows quietly within one of the most universally recognized constellations, hidden among brighter stars.