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Trash variable star 13 EP

Achernar

RA 24.4283° · Dec -57.2368° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Variable star +5
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Has a proper name · +8

Trivia

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 2.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 217.7 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 1394 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 139 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1887.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 279 years round-trip.

How we found it

  • Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

Properties

absmag
-2.705
bv
-0.158
constellation
Eri
dist ly
139.4425
mag
0.45
name
Achernar
named
yes
spect
B3Vp

About Achernar

Achernar is a trash variable star. It lies about 139.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 0.45 and has spectral type B3Vp.

Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

How to see it

Look for Achernar in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 0.45, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Achernar 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 Achernar is a trash variable star

Achernar scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Variable star and Has a proper name — 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.

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Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.