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Uncommon star 30 EP

HR 6944

RA 277.8596° · Dec -18.4027° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
30 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 30

4 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9/B9.5V — 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.

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 5.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 3.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 348.3 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.945
bv
0.016
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
223.0891
luminosity
36.4754
mag
5.12
name
HR 6944
spect
B9/B9.5V

About HR 6944

HR 6944 is an uncommon star. It lies about 223.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 5.12 and has spectral type B9/B9.5V.

Its spectrum reads B9/B9.5V — 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 6944 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 5.12, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 6944 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 6944 is an uncommon star

HR 6944 scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star and Main-sequence 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.