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Rare star 40 EP

HIP 39309

RA 120.5620° · Dec -3.9712° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Blazing O-type star +26
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Blue-white star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Blazing O-type star · +26
  • Blue-white star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads sdO: — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subdwarf: an old, metal-poor star from the galaxy's early days, a little smaller and fainter than a main-sequence star of the same colour.

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 10.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Monoceros.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 36 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
1.347
bv
-0.304
constellation
Mon
dist ly
2051.2955
luminosity
25.1884
mag
10.34
name
HIP 39309
spect
sdO:

About HIP 39309

HIP 39309 is a rare star. It lies about 2,051.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Mon, shines at apparent magnitude 10.34 and has spectral type sdO:.

Its spectrum reads sdO: — an O-type star — the hottest, rarest main class there is. Fewer than one star in a million is an O, and none of them lasts long.

How to see it

Look for HIP 39309 in the constellation Mon. At apparent magnitude 10.34, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 39309 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 39309 is a rare star

HIP 39309 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Blazing O-type 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.