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Common star 17 EP

HD 37903

RA 85.4100° · Dec -2.2590° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B1.5V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • 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 7.8 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 17.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.442
bv
0.077
constellation
Ori
dist ly
970.7022
luminosity
57.9696
mag
7.81
name
HD 37903
spect
B1.5V

About HD 37903

HD 37903 is a common star. It lies about 970.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 7.81 and has spectral type B1.5V.

Its spectrum reads B1.5V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 37903 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 7.81, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 37903 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 37903 is a common star

HD 37903 scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, In Orion's hunting ground, Hot blue B-type star and Main-sequence 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.