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Trash star 11 EP

HD 42081

RA 90.4599° · Dec -71.9595° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
11 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 11

4 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2/K3IV — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 9.8 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Mensa.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 3.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 338.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
5.655
bv
1.041
constellation
Men
dist ly
217.0033
luminosity
0.4764
mag
9.77
name
HD 42081
spect
K2/K3IV

About HD 42081

HD 42081 is a trash star. It lies about 217 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Men, shines at apparent magnitude 9.77 and has spectral type K2/K3IV.

Its spectrum reads K2/K3IV — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 42081 in the constellation Men. At apparent magnitude 9.77, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 42081 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 42081 is a trash star

HD 42081 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Orange K-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.