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Common variable star 20 EP

HD 137164

RA 231.9405° · Dec -63.0207° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K1/K2IVp — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • 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 7.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Triangulum Australe.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.993
bv
1.052
constellation
TrA
dist ly
400.683
luminosity
13.8931
mag
7.44
name
HD 137164
spect
K1/K2IVp
var amplitude
0.15
var designation
LS
var max
7.355
var min
7.505

About HD 137164

HD 137164 is a common variable star. It lies about 400.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation TrA, shines at apparent magnitude 7.44 and has spectral type K1/K2IVp.

Its spectrum reads K1/K2IVp — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 137164 in the constellation TrA. At apparent magnitude 7.44, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 137164 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 HD 137164 is a common variable star

HD 137164 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Orange K-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Gently 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.