Phi

Its story

Phi Sagittarii marks the joint between the handle and the lid of the Teapot, that familiar asterism that pours the Milky Way down toward the summer horizon. It is a blue-white giant 239 light-years away, having exhausted the hydrogen in its core and now drifting into stellar middle age. Without it, the Teapot's silhouette would be incomplete, and the heart of Sagittarius would lose a point of balance.