Acrux

Its story

Acrux is the topmost jewel of the Southern Cross, a blue system burning some 322 light-years away. Its spectral class B places it among the hottest stars visible to the naked eye, and for centuries its light guided southern navigators who read in Crux the sign of a new sky. The light arriving tonight set out when Galileo was still polishing his first telescope and turning it toward the firmament.