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Epic star 53 EP

Nunki

RA 283.8163° · Dec -26.2967° · star

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Score breakdown

· 9 badges
53 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Toward the galactic centre +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 53

25 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Toward the galactic centre · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2.5V — 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.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 2 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 July — 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. ≈ 4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-2.17
bv
-0.134
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
227.7626
luminosity
642.6877
mag
2.05
name
Nunki
named
yes
spect
B2.5V

About Nunki

Nunki is an epic star. It lies about 227.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 2.05 and has spectral type B2.5V.

Its spectrum reads B2.5V — 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 Nunki in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 2.05, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Nunki 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 Nunki is an epic star

Nunki 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 — Star, Naked-eye visible, Has a proper name, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Main-sequence star and Blue-white 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.