Alya

Its story

Alya is a white class-A star lying 154.7 light-years away in Serpens Cauda, the tail of the celestial reptile split in two by the body of Ophiuchus. Its name comes from the Arabic «al-alyat», the fat tail of a sheep, a startlingly culinary expression that reminds us how everyday the language of medieval astronomers could be. It forms a visual pair with Alya B in a discreet corner of the summer sky, nearly invisible to modern urban eyes.