About HD 48172
HD 48172 is a trash star. It lies about 272.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aur and shines at apparent magnitude 9.78.
Its colour puts the surface at roughly 6590 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Trash star 3 EP
HD 48172
RA 101.0918° · Dec 45.2165° · star
Score breakdown
· 1 badgeTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
Total score 3
12 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
Trivia
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 Auriga.
- 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. ≈ 4.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 425.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 2727 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 5.169
- bv
- 0.457
- constellation
- Aur
- dist ly
- 272.7056
- luminosity
- 0.7454
- mag
- 9.78
- name
- HD 48172
How to see it
Look for HD 48172 in the constellation Aur. At apparent magnitude 9.78, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HD 48172 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 48172 is a trash star
HD 48172 scores 3 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 1 science badge — 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.