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Trash star 10 EP

HIP 56461

RA 173.6487° · Dec 40.1563° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
10 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 10

5 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K: — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 11.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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. ≈ 5.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 501.2 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
6.274
bv
0.782
constellation
UMa
dist ly
321.0197
luminosity
0.2694
mag
11.24
name
HIP 56461
spect
K:

About HIP 56461

HIP 56461 is a trash star. It lies about 321 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 11.24 and has spectral type K:.

Its spectrum reads K: — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 56461 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 11.24, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 56461 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 56461 is a trash star

HIP 56461 scores 10 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Orange K-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.