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Uncommon star 25 EP

56 Hya

RA 221.9367° · Dec -26.0875° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
Total score 25

9 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8/K0III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 5.2 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Hydra.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 6.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 559 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.028
bv
0.938
constellation
Hya
dist ly
358.0198
luminosity
84.879
mag
5.23
name
56 Hya
spect
G8/K0III

About 56 Hya

56 Hya is an uncommon star. It lies about 358 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Hya, shines at apparent magnitude 5.23 and has spectral type G8/K0III.

Its spectrum reads G8/K0III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 56 Hya in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 5.23, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 56 Hya is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why 56 Hya is an uncommon star

56 Hya scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Sun-like G-type star and Giant star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.