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Uncommon variable star 32 EP

HD 73857

RA 130.2172° · Dec 9.8242° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
32 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • White A-type star +5
  • On the zodiac +3
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 32

2 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A7IIIvar — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.
  • 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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

absmag
1.761
bv
0.288
constellation
Cnc
dist ly
509.6187
luminosity
17.2028
mag
7.73
name
HD 73857
spect
A7IIIvar
var amplitude
0.57
var designation
VZ
var max
7.353
var min
7.923

About HD 73857

HD 73857 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 509.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cnc, shines at apparent magnitude 7.73 and has spectral type A7IIIvar.

Its spectrum reads A7IIIvar — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

How to see it

Look for HD 73857 in the constellation Cnc. At apparent magnitude 7.73, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 73857 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 73857 is an uncommon variable star

HD 73857 scores 32 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Variable star, On the zodiac, White A-type star, Giant star, Strongly 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.