Xi

Its story

Xi Boötis is one of the Herdsman's closest stars: barely 22 light-years separate us from this yellow type G sun, practically a cosmic stone's throw. Its variable surface stems from intense magnetic activity, much like solar spots but fiercer, and it forms a visual pair with a small orange dwarf that follows it closely. In the nineteenth century William Herschel already gauged the slow turning of this celebrated pair.