About Ain
Ain is a common star. It lies about 146.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tau, shines at apparent magnitude 3.53 and has spectral type K0III.
Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Common star 19 EP
Ain
RA 67.1541° · Dec 19.1804° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 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. ≈ 2.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 229 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 1467 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
- Distance. 147 light-years from Earth.
Look-back time
- Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1879.
Saying hello
- Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 293 years round-trip.
How we found it
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- absmag
- 0.266
- bv
- 1.014
- constellation
- Tau
- dist ly
- 146.6528
- mag
- 3.53
- name
- Ain
- named
- yes
- spect
- K0III
How to see it
Look for Ain in the constellation Tau. At apparent magnitude 3.53, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Ain 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 Ain is a common star
Ain 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.