hip-98609

Its story

A blue B-type star burns about 1,080 light years away in tiny Vulpecula, the Fox added to the sky by the astronomer Hevelius in the seventeenth century. Its light departed around the year 946, in the heart of the High Middle Ages, when Byzantium was flourishing under Constantine VII and Caliphal Córdoba was reaching its cultural splendour. Far hotter than the Sun and with a bluish-white blaze, it displays the energy of young and massive stars. The celestial Fox, hidden between Cygnus and Sagitta, lends it a discreet corner rich in faint stars.