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Uncommon star 32 EP

HD 172508

RA 280.1976° · Dec -4.4964° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Bright giant +12
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Bright giant · +12
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0II-III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 7.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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 July — 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. ≈ 18.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.098
bv
1.81
constellation
Sct
dist ly
1032.1393
luminosity
79.5793
mag
7.6
name
HD 172508
spect
K0II-III

About HD 172508

HD 172508 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,032.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sct, shines at apparent magnitude 7.6 and has spectral type K0II-III.

Its spectrum reads K0II-III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 172508 in the constellation Sct. At apparent magnitude 7.6, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 172508 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 172508 is an uncommon star

HD 172508 scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Orange K-type star, Bright giant and Deep red 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.