About HIP 4948
HIP 4948 is a trash star. It lies about 322.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet and shines at apparent magnitude 10.38.
Its colour puts the surface at roughly 5220 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Trash star 3 EP
HIP 4948
RA 15.8658° · Dec -5.8114° · star
Score breakdown
· 1 badgeTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
Total score 3
12 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
Trivia
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 10.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cetus.
- 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 October — 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. ≈ 5.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 503.2 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 3223 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 5.406
- bv
- 0.82
- constellation
- Cet
- dist ly
- 322.2884
- luminosity
- 0.5992
- mag
- 10.38
- name
- HIP 4948
How to see it
Look for HIP 4948 in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 10.38, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 4948 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 HIP 4948 is a trash star
HIP 4948 scores 3 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 1 science badge — 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.