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Rare star 37 EP

HIP 23342

RA 75.3156° · Dec -65.7678° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
37 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Deep red star +8
  • Star +3
Total score 37

13 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O... — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

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 12 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Dorado.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around December — 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. ≈ 2.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 204.5 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
8.961
bv
1.41
constellation
Dor
dist ly
130.9862
luminosity
0.0227
mag
11.98
name
HIP 23342
spect
O...

About HIP 23342

HIP 23342 is a rare star. It lies about 131 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Dor, shines at apparent magnitude 11.98 and has spectral type O....

Its spectrum reads O... — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HIP 23342 in the constellation Dor. At apparent magnitude 11.98, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 23342 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 HIP 23342 is a rare star

HIP 23342 scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 13 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Blazing O-type star and Deep red 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.