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Epic variable star 59 EP

Pi Pup

RA 109.2857° · Dec -37.0975° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
59 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Supergiant +18
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) +10
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Deep red star +8
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 59

19 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Supergiant · +18
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2) · +10
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K3Ib — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a supergiant, hundreds of times wider than the Sun.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

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 2.7 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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.

Properties

absmag
-4.258
bv
1.616
constellation
Pup
dist ly
807.317
luminosity
4397.4408
mag
2.71
name
Pi Pup
spect
K3Ib
var amplitude
0.06
var designation
Pi
var max
2.681
var min
2.741

About Pi Pup

Pi Pup is an epic variable star. It lies about 807.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 2.71 and has spectral type K3Ib.

Its spectrum reads K3Ib — 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 Pi Pup in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 2.71, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Pi Pup 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 Pi Pup is an epic variable star

Pi Pup scores 59 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 19 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Naked-eye visible, Orange K-type star, Supergiant, Deep red star, Intrinsically luminous (Mv < −2), Gently variable and A named variable 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.