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Epic variable star 53 EP

HR 6662

RA 268.4782° · Dec -34.7527° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
53 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Fades out of naked-eye view +16
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 53

25 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • Fades out of naked-eye view · +16
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9IV/V — 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.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • 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 6 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

absmag
-1.495
bv
-0.06
constellation
Sco
dist ly
1028.8832
luminosity
345.1437
mag
6
name
HR 6662
spect
B9IV/V
var amplitude
0.24
var designation
V906
var max
5.975
var min
6.215

About HR 6662

HR 6662 is an epic variable star. It lies about 1,028.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sco, shines at apparent magnitude 6 and has spectral type B9IV/V.

Its spectrum reads B9IV/V — 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 HR 6662 in the constellation Sco. At apparent magnitude 6, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 6662 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 HR 6662 is an epic variable star

HR 6662 scores 53 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 25 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 9 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Blue-white star, Gently variable and Fades out of naked-eye view — 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.