hip-56970

Its story

In Centaurus, that vast austral figure sheltering the closest stars to the Sun, pulses a red variable M-type giant more than eleven hundred light-years away. Its light set out toward the ninth century, when Al-Andalus was flourishing culturally and the northern Christian kingdoms were barely taking root. Far cooler than the Sun yet enormously expanded, its crimson brilliance slowly oscillates, like the deep, ancient breath of the mythic rider.