About HIP 55404
HIP 55404 is a trash star. It lies about 1,148.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo and shines at apparent magnitude 10.52.
Its colour puts the surface at roughly 5120 K, against the Sun's 5778 K.
Trash star 12 EP
HIP 55404
RA 170.1831° · Dec 22.8747° · star
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
- Star +3
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 12
3 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
- On the zodiac · +3
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 10.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Leo.
- 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 March — that's when to go looking.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 20.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.8 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 11.5 thousand years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 2.787
- bv
- 0.856
- constellation
- Leo
- dist ly
- 1148.4367
- luminosity
- 6.6865
- mag
- 10.52
- name
- HIP 55404
How to see it
Look for HIP 55404 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 10.52, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 55404 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 55404 is a trash star
HIP 55404 scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years) and On the zodiac — 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.