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Rare star 41 EP

HD 36841

RA 83.6405° · Dec -0.3865° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
41 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Star +3
Total score 41

9 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Blazing O-type star · +26

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O8 — 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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Orion.
  • 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 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. ≈ 35.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 3.1 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.349
bv
0.017
constellation
Ori
dist ly
2000.9569
luminosity
120.1158
mag
8.59
name
HD 36841
spect
O8

About HD 36841

HD 36841 is a rare star. It lies about 2,001 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 8.59 and has spectral type O8.

Its spectrum reads O8 — 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 HD 36841 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 8.59, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 36841 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 36841 is a rare star

HD 36841 scores 41 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), In Orion's hunting ground and Blazing O-type 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.