hip-72357

Its story

56 Hydrae glows about 358 light-years away within the immense body of Hydra, the largest of the 88 modern constellations. A G-type star, similar in colour to the Sun but more luminous and older, its light takes more than three centuries to reach us: the photons arriving now left when Newton was still publishing the Principia. Modest to the eye, its discretion suits this celestial serpent.