Alp

Its story

Alpha Lupi anchors the heart of the southern Wolf with a quiet blue-white glow: it belongs to the Beta Cephei family of variables, giants that swell and contract every few hours in pulses too subtle for the naked eye. At 465 light-years, it is a serious candidate to one day erupt as a supernova on a cosmic timescale. The light arriving tonight set out before Galileo first turned his glass skyward.