hip-7643

Its story

In Sculptor, a modern and discreet constellation of the southern hemisphere, an orange K-type star shines about 332 light years away. Its light departed around 1694, when Christiaan Huygens was publishing his final reflections on light and celestial mechanics. Cooler than the Sun and with an amber tone, it embodies that stage of stellar life in which the outer layers begin to swell. The constellation, sketched by Lacaille in the eighteenth century as a tribute to the sculptor's workshop, lends it a deep, dark sky in which its glow stands out calmly.