hip-54951

Cool red star

Its story

72 Leonis is a chilly rarity: an M-type giant nearly 960 light-years out, glowing deep red within the Lion's back. Stars like this are late embers, suns swollen to hundreds of times our own diameter and cooled at the surface. Its light departed around the year 1066 and is still en route, a reminder that a warm colour can hide a temperature that is, in stellar terms, glacial.

Constellation: Leo
Apparent magnitude: 4.56
Distance: 959.4 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 168.801° · Dec 23.096°
Catalogue: HIP 54951 · HD 97778

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Symbolic commemorative gift — no ownership, no IAU recognition.