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Trash variable star 13 EP

Mintaka

RA 83.0017° · Dec -0.2991° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Variable star +5
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • 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. ≈ 12.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 6925 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 692 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 1334.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 1385 years round-trip.

How we found it

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

Properties

absmag
-4.385
bv
-0.175
constellation
Ori
dist ly
692.4755
mag
2.25
name
Mintaka
named
yes
spect
O9.5II

About Mintaka

Mintaka is a trash variable star. It lies about 692.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 2.25 and has spectral type O9.5II.

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

How to see it

Look for Mintaka in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 2.25, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Mintaka 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 Mintaka is a trash variable star

Mintaka scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Variable star 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.