← Back to dex
Trash star 13 EP

HD 142879

RA 243.9348° · Dec -84.1245° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 3 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G3V — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Octans.
  • 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. ≈ 2.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
5.24
bv
0.62
constellation
Oct
dist ly
163.4867
luminosity
0.6982
mag
8.74
name
HD 142879
spect
G3V

Nearby objects

About HD 142879

HD 142879 is a trash star. It lies about 163.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oct, shines at apparent magnitude 8.74 and has spectral type G3V.

Its spectrum reads G3V — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 142879 in the constellation Oct. At apparent magnitude 8.74, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 142879 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 142879 is a trash star

HD 142879 scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Sun-like G-type star and Main-sequence 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.