About HIP 48509
HIP 48509 is a common star. It lies about 85.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa and shines at apparent magnitude 12.02.
Its colour puts the surface at roughly 3780 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Common star 15 EP
HIP 48509
RA 148.3904° · Dec 50.7511° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Deep red star +8
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
- Star +3
Total score 15
7 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
- Deep red star · +8
Trivia
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 12 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, 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. ≈ 1.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 133.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 858 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 9.92
- bv
- 1.51
- constellation
- UMa
- dist ly
- 85.7852
- luminosity
- 0.0094
- mag
- 12.02
- name
- HIP 48509
How to see it
Look for HIP 48509 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 12.02, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 48509 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 48509 is a common star
HIP 48509 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar) 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.