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Trash star 10 EP

HD 55400

RA 107.6582° · Dec -45.5812° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
10 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 10

5 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A3V — 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 7.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Puppis.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around January — 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. ≈ 14 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.934
bv
0.15
constellation
Pup
dist ly
795.5023
luminosity
36.8468
mag
7.87
name
HD 55400
spect
A3V

About HD 55400

HD 55400 is a trash star. It lies about 795.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 7.87 and has spectral type A3V.

Its spectrum reads A3V — 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 55400 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 7.87, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 55400 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 55400 is a trash star

HD 55400 scores 10 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, 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.