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Uncommon variable star 29 EP

46 Eri

RA 68.4780° · Dec -6.7389° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • A named variable star +3
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) +2
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) · +2
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B9p Si — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

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 5.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 14.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.313
bv
-0.128
constellation
Eri
dist ly
827.8071
luminosity
291.8771
mag
5.71
name
46 Eri
spect
B9p Si
var amplitude
0.03
var designation
EH
var max
5.692
var min
5.722

About 46 Eri

46 Eri is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 827.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 5.71 and has spectral type B9p Si.

Its spectrum reads B9p Si — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for 46 Eri in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 5.71, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 46 Eri 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 46 Eri is an uncommon variable star

46 Eri scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Hot blue B-type star, Blue-white star, Barely variable (under 0.05 mag) and A named variable 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.