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Trash star 6 EP

HD 278942

RA 54.9820° · Dec 31.9259° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
6 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 6

9 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

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 9 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Perseus.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 11.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 990.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.585
bv
1.13
constellation
Per
dist ly
634.5447
luminosity
8.0538
mag
9.03
name
HD 278942
spect
F2

About HD 278942

HD 278942 is a trash star. It lies about 634.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Per, shines at apparent magnitude 9.03 and has spectral type F2.

Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 278942 in the constellation Per. At apparent magnitude 9.03, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 278942 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 278942 is a trash star

HD 278942 scores 6 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Yellow-white F-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.