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Epic variable star 50 EP

HIP 40351

RA 123.5782° · Dec 8.5735° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
50 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) +20
  • Deep red star +8
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 50

28 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Red dwarf · +6
  • Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) · +20
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 119.1 thousand 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 M7 — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 12.1 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Cancer.
  • 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.

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 3790 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.

Properties

absmag
-7.86
bv
1.5
constellation
Cnc
luminosity
121338.885
mag
12.14
name
HIP 40351
spect
M7
var amplitude
2.48
var designation
TV
var max
11.161
var min
13.641

About HIP 40351

HIP 40351 is an epic variable star. It sits in the constellation Cnc, shines at apparent magnitude 12.14 and has spectral type M7.

Its spectrum reads M7 — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HIP 40351 in the constellation Cnc. At apparent magnitude 12.14, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 40351 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 40351 is an epic variable star

HIP 40351 scores 50 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 28 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, Cool red M-type star, Deep red star, Red dwarf, Dramatic variable (over 2 magnitudes) 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.