hip-70987

Its story

In the southern Centaur, about 315 light years away, an orange K-type star gleams discreetly. Its light departed around 1711, when Bach was beginning his career as an organist in Weimar and Europe was living through the first decades of full musical Baroque. Cooler than the Sun and bathed in a soft amber tone, it embodies that natural step toward stellar maturity in which suns expand their volume without losing serenity. The mythical centaur, one of the most extensive and rich constellations of the southern sky, offers it a noble and ancient stage.