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Common star 20 EP

HD 35012

RA 81.1149° · Dec 52.2303° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Auriga.
  • 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 December — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 26.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.578
bv
1.546
constellation
Aur
dist ly
1489.2968
luminosity
148.3201
mag
7.72
name
HD 35012
spect
K2

About HD 35012

HD 35012 is a common star. It lies about 1,489.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aur, shines at apparent magnitude 7.72 and has spectral type K2.

Its spectrum reads K2 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 35012 in the constellation Aur. At apparent magnitude 7.72, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 35012 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 35012 is a common star

HD 35012 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Orange K-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.