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Trash star 6 EP

HD 170988

RA 278.1642° · Dec -7.9960° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
6 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 6

9 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F0 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

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 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Scutum.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. ≈ 10.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 943.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.922
bv
0.549
constellation
Sct
dist ly
603.9926
luminosity
5.9047
mag
9.26
name
HD 170988
spect
F0

About HD 170988

HD 170988 is a trash star. It lies about 604 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sct, shines at apparent magnitude 9.26 and has spectral type F0.

Its spectrum reads F0 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 170988 in the constellation Sct. At apparent magnitude 9.26, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 170988 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 170988 is a trash star

HD 170988 scores 6 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Yellow-white F-type 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.