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Common star 20 EP

15 UMa

RA 137.2179° · Dec 51.6046° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Am — 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.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 4.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Ursa Major.
  • 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 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. ≈ 1.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 146.8 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
2.162
bv
0.288
constellation
UMa
dist ly
93.9929
luminosity
11.8905
mag
4.46
name
15 UMa
spect
Am

About 15 UMa

15 UMa is a common star. It lies about 94 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.46 and has spectral type Am.

Its spectrum reads Am — 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 15 UMa in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 4.46, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 15 UMa 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 15 UMa is a common star

15 UMa scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and White A-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.