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Rare variable star 39 EP

HR 7402

RA 292.3390° · Dec -7.0441° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Supergiant +18
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Variable star +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F5-G1I-II — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Aquila.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 15.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.83
bv
0.87
constellation
Aql
dist ly
898.5014
luminosity
187.0682
mag
6.37
name
HR 7402
spect
F5-G1I-II
var amplitude
0.77
var designation
U
var max
6.096
var min
6.866

About HR 7402

HR 7402 is a rare variable star. It lies about 898.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aql, shines at apparent magnitude 6.37 and has spectral type F5-G1I-II.

Its spectrum reads F5-G1I-II — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HR 7402 in the constellation Aql. At apparent magnitude 6.37, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HR 7402 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 7402 is a rare variable star

HR 7402 scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Yellow-white F-type star, Supergiant, Strongly variable and A named variable 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.