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Trash star 12 EP

HD 19996

RA 48.1829° · Dec -2.9072° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
12 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 12

3 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Orange K-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 8.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Eridanus.
  • 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 November — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 32.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2.9 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.147
bv
1.094
constellation
Eri
dist ly
1874.4596
luminosity
99.7241
mag
8.65
name
HD 19996
spect
K0

Nearby objects

About HD 19996

HD 19996 is a trash star. It lies about 1,874.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 8.65 and has spectral type K0.

Its spectrum reads K0 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 19996 in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 8.65, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 19996 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 HD 19996 is a trash star

HD 19996 scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years) and Orange K-type 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.