hip-77902

Its story

In Serpens, this red M-type giant shines with the deep, throbbing red of cool evolved stars. Its light set out 511 years ago, around 1513, when Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama and first sighted the Pacific Ocean. Far larger and far cooler than the Sun, its variability betrays the slow contractions of a mature star, suspended between quietude and the final transformation of its cycle.