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Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 72541

RA 127.5169° · Dec -62.0670° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2
  • Deep red star · +8

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K3V: — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 23.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
0.485
bv
1.519
constellation
Car
dist ly
1325.8375
luminosity
55.7186
mag
8.53
name
HD 72541
spect
K3V:

About HD 72541

HD 72541 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,325.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 8.53 and has spectral type K3V:.

Its spectrum reads K3V: — 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 HD 72541 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 8.53, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 72541 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 HD 72541 is an uncommon star

HD 72541 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Orange K-type star, Main-sequence 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.