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Trash star 12 EP

HD 156960

RA 261.3679° · Dec -66.3901° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
12 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 12

3 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0/K1III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 7.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ara.
  • 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 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. ≈ 14.8 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
0.249
bv
1.103
constellation
Ara
dist ly
842.7803
luminosity
69.2468
mag
7.31
name
HD 156960
spect
K0/K1III

About HD 156960

HD 156960 is a trash star. It lies about 842.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ara, shines at apparent magnitude 7.31 and has spectral type K0/K1III.

Its spectrum reads K0/K1III — 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 156960 in the constellation Ara. At apparent magnitude 7.31, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 156960 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 156960 is a trash star

HD 156960 scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Orange K-type star and Giant 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.