About HIP 42396
HIP 42396 is a trash star. It lies about 176.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Hya and shines at apparent magnitude 11.39.
Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3520 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Trash star 11 EP
HIP 42396
RA 129.6738° · Dec 1.2876° · star
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Deep red star +8
- Star +3
Total score 11
4 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Deep red star · +8
Trivia
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 11.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Hydra.
- 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. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 3.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 275.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 1767 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 7.721
- bv
- 1.7
- constellation
- Hya
- dist ly
- 176.6826
- luminosity
- 0.0711
- mag
- 11.39
- name
- HIP 42396
How to see it
Look for HIP 42396 in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 11.39, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 42396 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 42396 is a trash star
HIP 42396 scores 11 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 2 science badges — 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.