hip-54137

Its story

Beneath the southern sails of Vela shines a white A-class star, hotter and more luminous than the Sun, lying some two hundred and eighty-five light-years away. The light that now draws it in the southern sky set out when the first European sailing ships were beginning to chart Polynesia with precision and Watt was tuning his steam engine in Scotland. Its bluish-white tone, almost icy, contrasts with the Sun's warm yellow.