About HD 142157
HD 142157 is an uncommon star. It sits in the constellation TrA, shines at apparent magnitude 9.1 and has spectral type G6II/III.
Its spectrum reads G6II/III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
Uncommon star 23 EP
HD 142157
RA 239.3688° · Dec -67.8386° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Bright giant +12
- Sun-like G-type star +8
- Star +3
Total score 23
11 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Sun-like G-type star · +8
- Bright giant · +12
Trivia
Hard to believe
- True brightness. It pours out about 2 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.
What it actually is
- Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G6II/III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
- Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out orange (B−V 1.1) — cooler than the Sun, and the kind of star that burns steadily for tens of billions of years.
By the numbers
- Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 4610 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Properties
- absmag
- -10.9
- bv
- 1.057
- constellation
- TrA
- luminosity
- 1995262.315
- mag
- 9.1
- name
- HD 142157
- spect
- G6II/III
How to see it
Look for HD 142157 in the constellation TrA. At apparent magnitude 9.1, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 142157 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 142157 is an uncommon star
HD 142157 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Sun-like G-type star and Bright giant — 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.