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Rare star 35 EP

HR 7166

RA 284.8492° · Dec -12.8405° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Naked-eye visible +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 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

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
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B4V — 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 5.5 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. ≈ 8.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.315
bv
-0.038
constellation
Sgr
dist ly
476.8362
luminosity
116.4126
mag
5.51
name
HR 7166
spect
B4V

About HR 7166

HR 7166 is a rare star. It lies about 476.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr, shines at apparent magnitude 5.51 and has spectral type B4V.

Its spectrum reads B4V — 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 7166 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 5.51, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, HR 7166 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 7166 is a rare star

HR 7166 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, 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.