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Uncommon star 31 EP

18Nu Gem

RA 97.2408° · Dec 20.2121° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Giant star · +6
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B6III — 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 a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 4.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Gemini.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • 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. ≈ 9.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.983
bv
-0.115
constellation
Gem
dist ly
544.5008
luminosity
541.0034
mag
4.13
name
18Nu Gem
spect
B6III

About 18Nu Gem

18Nu Gem is an uncommon star. It lies about 544.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gem, shines at apparent magnitude 4.13 and has spectral type B6III.

Its spectrum reads B6III — 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 18Nu Gem in the constellation Gem. At apparent magnitude 4.13, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 18Nu Gem 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 18Nu Gem is an uncommon star

18Nu Gem scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac, Hot blue B-type star, Giant star and Blue-white 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.