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Rare variable star 42 EP

HD 157485

RA 261.1451° · Dec -26.9247° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
42 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 42

8 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B1/B2Ib — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions 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 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ophiuchus.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 44.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.377
bv
0.564
constellation
Oph
dist ly
2528.3411
luminosity
123.2537
mag
9.07
name
HD 157485
spect
B1/B2Ib
var amplitude
0.08
var designation
V2371
var max
9.031
var min
9.111

About HD 157485

HD 157485 is a rare variable star. It lies about 2,528.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Oph, shines at apparent magnitude 9.07 and has spectral type B1/B2Ib.

Its spectrum reads B1/B2Ib — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 157485 in the constellation Oph. At apparent magnitude 9.07, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 157485 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 157485 is a rare variable star

HD 157485 scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Hot blue B-type star, Supergiant, 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.