hyg-118562

Binary system

Its story

In Vela — the sail of the ancient ship Argo — two white stars share a gravitational dance some 80 light-years away. Their light set out around 1946, while ENIAC was running its first calculations in Philadelphia and the computer age was being born. Today, that silent pair crosses the firmament as a single drop of brightness, no one on Earth ever having seen one full turn of its waltz.

Constellation: Vela
Apparent magnitude: 5.00
Distance: 79.8 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 131.174° · Dec -54.708°
Catalogue: HYG 118562

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Symbolic commemorative gift — no ownership, no IAU recognition.