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Common star 15 EP

HD 161882

RA 268.2833° · Dec -66.7433° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • White A-type star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0V — 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.
  • 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 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Pavo.
  • 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. ≈ 11.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
2.657
bv
-0.004
constellation
Pav
dist ly
630.8627
luminosity
7.537
mag
9.09
name
HD 161882
spect
A0V

About HD 161882

HD 161882 is a common star. It lies about 630.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pav, shines at apparent magnitude 9.09 and has spectral type A0V.

Its spectrum reads A0V — 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 161882 in the constellation Pav. At apparent magnitude 9.09, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 161882 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 161882 is a common star

HD 161882 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, White A-type star, Main-sequence star and Blue-white 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.