← Back to dex
Trash star 13 EP

HD 157242

RA 261.0765° · Dec -43.9942° · star

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

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A8/A9V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

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 8.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Scorpius.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — 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. ≈ 15.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.229
bv
0.361
constellation
Sco
dist ly
858.3053
luminosity
28.0802
mag
8.33
name
HD 157242
spect
A8/A9V

About HD 157242

HD 157242 is a trash star. It lies about 858.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sco, shines at apparent magnitude 8.33 and has spectral type A8/A9V.

Its spectrum reads A8/A9V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 157242 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 8.33, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 157242 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 157242 is a trash star

HD 157242 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 4 science badges — Star, On the zodiac, White A-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.