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Trash star 9 EP

HIP 40408

RA 123.7371° · Dec 32.1492° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
9 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 9

6 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

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 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Cancer.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north 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. ≈ 8.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 728.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
3.522
bv
0.371
constellation
Cnc
dist ly
466.6037
luminosity
3.3978
mag
9.3
name
HIP 40408
spect
F2

About HIP 40408

HIP 40408 is a trash star. It lies about 466.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cnc, shines at apparent magnitude 9.3 and has spectral type F2.

Its spectrum reads F2 — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for HIP 40408 in the constellation Cnc. At apparent magnitude 9.3, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 40408 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 40408 is a trash star

HIP 40408 scores 9 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, On the zodiac and Yellow-white F-type 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.