Sig

Its story

Sigma Ophiuchi is a luminous K-type giant about 901 light-years away, half-hidden in the broad body of the Serpent-Bearer. Its orange ember owes more to true luminosity than to apparent brightness: what reaches Earth is only a faint share of the light it pours into space. Distance dissolves its splendour into a modest spark, yet its spectrum betrays a deep atmosphere bright enough to illuminate whole stretches of the molecular cloud in which it ages, well away from the bustle of the galactic core.