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Common star 16 EP

HD 39953

RA 88.9888° · Dec 0.8361° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • 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 7.2 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. ≈ 9.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.174
bv
0.104
constellation
Ori
dist ly
516.0695
luminosity
29.5393
mag
7.17
name
HD 39953
spect
A0V

About HD 39953

HD 39953 is a common star. It lies about 516.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 7.17 and has spectral type A0V.

Its spectrum reads A0V — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 39953 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 7.17, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 39953 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 39953 is a common star

HD 39953 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, In Orion's hunting ground, White A-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.