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Uncommon variable star 22 EP

HIP 72625

RA 222.7324° · Dec 67.3196° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Variable star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

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 11.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ursa Minor.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. ≈ 3.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 311.7 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
7.446
constellation
UMi
dist ly
199.6058
luminosity
0.0915
mag
11.38
name
HIP 72625
var amplitude
0.61
var designation
SZ
var max
11.274
var min
11.884

About HIP 72625

HIP 72625 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 199.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMi and shines at apparent magnitude 11.38.

This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

How to see it

Look for HIP 72625 in the constellation UMi. At apparent magnitude 11.38, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 72625 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 HIP 72625 is an uncommon variable star

HIP 72625 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Variable star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Strongly variable and A named variable 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.