hip-68191

Its story

This orange giant of Centaurus pours out the warm glow of an old flame, cooler than the Sun and tinting its disk with hues of burnished copper. The light reaching us now departed a little more than two centuries ago, when Goya was painting his caprichos in Madrid and Enlightenment ideas were sweeping across Europe. It belongs to the branch of stars that have already swollen their atmospheres, foreshadowing what will one day happen to our Sun once it leaves behind its quiet maturity.