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Trash variable star 12 EP

HIP 39452

RA 120.9611° · Dec -31.5516° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
12 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 12

3 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • 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 9.7 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 4.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 363 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
5.435
bv
0.735
constellation
Pup
dist ly
232.4703
luminosity
0.5834
mag
9.7
name
HIP 39452
var amplitude
0.26
var designation
V417
var max
9.621
var min
9.881

About HIP 39452

HIP 39452 is a trash variable star. It lies about 232.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup and shines at apparent magnitude 9.7.

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.

How to see it

Look for HIP 39452 in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 9.7, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 39452 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 39452 is a trash variable star

HIP 39452 scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Variable star, 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.