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Rare star 35 EP

56 UMa

RA 170.7066° · Dec 43.4827° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright giant +12
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Bright giant · +12

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is a bright giant, well on its way to the largest stars there are.

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 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 March — 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. ≈ 9.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.076
bv
0.998
constellation
UMa
dist ly
532.9347
luminosity
234.6389
mag
4.99
name
56 UMa
spect
G8II

About 56 UMa

56 UMa is a rare star. It lies about 532.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 4.99 and has spectral type G8II.

Its spectrum reads G8II — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for 56 UMa in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 4.99, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 56 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 56 UMa is a rare star

56 UMa scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Sun-like G-type star and Bright giant — 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.