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Common star 19 EP

Electra

RA 56.2189° · Dec 24.1133° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 24 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Star +3
Total score 19

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • 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. ≈ 7.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 631.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 4047 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 405 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1621.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 809 years round-trip.

How we found it

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

Properties

absmag
-1.748
bv
-0.105
constellation
Tau
dist ly
404.6601
mag
3.72
name
Electra
named
yes
spect
B6III

About Electra

Electra is a common star. It lies about 404.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 3.72 and has spectral type B6III.

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

How to see it

Look for Electra in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 3.72, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Electra 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 Electra is a common star

Electra scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible 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.