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Its story

Towards the heart of Sagittarius, near the galactic arm pointing to the centre of the Milky Way, glows this white A-type star, gently variable. Its light began its journey about 300 years ago, in the depths of the Enlightenment, when Voltaire was writing his philosophical letters and Bach composing the Goldberg Variations. Hotter than the Sun and far brighter, its glow rises and falls like a faint heartbeat. A visitor from the eighteenth century, finally arriving at our telescopes.