hip-84709

Its story

In Scorpius, surprisingly nearby, shines a small orange star only twenty-two light years away, a cosmic neighbor almost within reach. Its light set out at the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the first rovers were starting to roll across the surface of Mars and the first transiting exoplanets were being discovered. It is K-type, cooler and more modest than the Sun, a quiet flame like so many that populate our galactic neighborhood. Its closeness makes it one of the few stars whose present we almost share.