hip-80953

Its story

In the sturdy body of Hercules, 226 light-years from here, shines a white type-A star whose light departed when the first steam locomotives were still sounding their whistles across England. It is markedly hotter and more luminous than the Sun, with that clean, cold whiteness so typical of its spectral class. It belongs to a constellation whose name evokes impossible labours —yet it itself toils in silence, without pulse or known companion, faithful to its own combustion.