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Rare star 44 EP

HD 168571

RA 275.2878° · Dec -17.3816° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
44 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Supergiant · +18

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B1Iab/b — 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 supergiant. Drop it where the Sun is and its surface would engulf the inner planets.

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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Sagittarius.
  • 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. ≈ 50.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.975
bv
0.478
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
2861.0176
luminosity
537.0318
mag
7.74
name
HD 168571
spect
B1Iab/b

About HD 168571

HD 168571 is a rare star. It lies about 2,861 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 7.74 and has spectral type B1Iab/b.

Its spectrum reads B1Iab/b — 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 168571 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 7.74, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 168571 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 168571 is a rare star

HD 168571 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star and Supergiant — 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.