hip-83947

Its story

In Hercules, the hero of the northern sky, an orange K-type star pulses 282 light-years away. Its light set out while Europe was living the Enlightenment and Voltaire was sharpening his pen against dogma. Cooler and longer-lived than the Sun, its warm hue recalls amber held against the light. On a quiet summer night, when Hercules hangs above the horizon, that patient ember has been burning since the eighteenth century.