Iot

Its story

In medieval Arabic its old name, Al Thalimain, meant «the two ostriches»: it forms with a neighbouring star a pair at the foot of the celestial Eagle. This is the blue subgiant of the duo — five times the Sun's mass, 850 times its luminosity, with a surface burning at 14,500 degrees. The light reaching us today left around the year 1635, while Galileo was dictating his last observations under house arrest in Arcetri, and has crossed 391 light-years in silence to tint one corner of Aquila blue.