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Uncommon star 25 EP

16Zet Hya

RA 133.8485° · Dec 5.9456° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
25 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
Total score 25

9 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

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 3.1 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, 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 February — 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. ≈ 2.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-0.439
bv
0.978
constellation
Hya
dist ly
167.1739
luminosity
130.4968
mag
3.11
name
16Zet Hya
spect
G8III-IV

About 16Zet Hya

16Zet Hya is an uncommon star. It lies about 167.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Hya, shines at apparent magnitude 3.11 and has spectral type G8III-IV.

Its spectrum reads G8III-IV — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 16Zet Hya in the constellation Hya. At apparent magnitude 3.11, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 16Zet Hya 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 16Zet Hya is an uncommon star

16Zet Hya scores 25 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Sun-like G-type star and Giant 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.