hip-63117

Its story

An O-type star —among the rarest and most violent in the universe— burns in Crux, the small Southern Cross that guides austral navigators. Its light crossed a dizzying distance, more than 326,000 light-years: it set out before Homo sapiens had even emerged and Neanderthals still walked across Europe. Tens of times more massive and hotter than the Sun, its blue-white blaze is the echo of a world older than humanity can remember.