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Epic star 66 EP

48Sig Ori

RA 84.6865° · Dec -2.6001° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
66 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 66

12 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads O9.5V... — 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.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 3.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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. ≈ 18.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-3.816
bv
-0.19
constellation
Ori
dist ly
1072.8817
luminosity
2926.8469
mag
3.77
name
48Sig Ori
spect
O9.5V...

About 48Sig Ori

48Sig Ori is an epic star. It lies about 1,072.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 3.77 and has spectral type O9.5V....

Its spectrum reads O9.5V... — 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 48Sig Ori in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 3.77, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 48Sig Ori 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 48Sig Ori is an epic star

48Sig Ori scores 66 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Naked-eye visible, In Orion's hunting ground, Blazing O-type star, Main-sequence star, Blue-white star and Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) — 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.