HR 2766

A relatively faint naked-eye star in the southern parts of Canis Major, HR 2766 falls a little more than two degrees northwestward of Aludra, the southeasternmost bright star of its constellation. Its reddish colouration reflects the fact that it is a red giant, an evolved star that has reached the end of its hydrogen-burning stage and expanded its outer shell to immense proportions. Data from the Gaia mission suggests that it has reached a diameter some sixty times that of the Sun, and emits seven hundred times as much energy.

The Gaia parallax data suggests that this star is some 428 light years from the Sun (though other measurements imply that it might be slightly closer than this figure). Regardless of its precise distance, analysis of its radial velocity shows that it is moving rapidly away from the Solar System. Its trajectory through the Galaxy suggests that it might have shared an origin with other stars in the 'Hyades supercluster', a hypothesised group of stars related to the Hyades, which have now dissipated across the local regions of the Milky Way (though this proposed origin is by no means univerally accepted).