About HIP 73169
HIP 73169 is a trash star. It lies about 89.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lib and shines at apparent magnitude 11.82.
It is a genuine dim bulb — only about 1.2% of the Sun's light output.
Trash star 6 EP
HIP 73169
RA 224.3027° · Dec -6.3170° · star
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 6
9 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- On the zodiac · +3
Trivia
Sense of scale
- In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 11.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Libra.
- Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
- 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. ≈ 1.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 139.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 891 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 9.638
- constellation
- Lib
- dist ly
- 89.0892
- luminosity
- 0.0122
- mag
- 11.82
- name
- HIP 73169
How to see it
Look for HIP 73169 in the constellation Lib. At apparent magnitude 11.82, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 73169 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 73169 is a trash star
HIP 73169 scores 6 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and On the zodiac — 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.