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Trash star 14 EP

HIP 38990

RA 119.6927° · Dec -25.7262° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
14 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Deep red star +8
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 14

1 more point to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.8 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K5 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out deep orange-red (B−V 1.5) — one of the coolest surfaces a star can have while still fusing.

By the numbers

  • Surface temperature. Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3730 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

What's in a name

  • Its catalogue. The HIP number comes from Hipparcos, the ESA satellite that between 1989 and 1993 pinned down 118,000 stars precisely enough to triangulate their distances.

Properties

absmag
-10.81
bv
1.541
constellation
Pup
luminosity
1836538.3433
mag
9.19
name
HIP 38990
spect
K5

Nearby objects

About HIP 38990

HIP 38990 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 9.19 and has spectral type K5.

Its spectrum reads K5 — 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 HIP 38990 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 9.19, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 38990 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 HIP 38990 is a trash star

HIP 38990 scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Orange K-type star and Deep red 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.