← Back to dex
Common star 19 EP

4 Vir

RA 176.9788° · Dec 8.2459° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 4 badges
19 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • White A-type star +5
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 19

3 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White A-type star · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads A1 — 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. 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 5.3 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Virgo.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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. ≈ 3.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 301.3 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.449
bv
0.038
constellation
Vir
dist ly
192.9917
luminosity
22.9298
mag
5.31
name
4 Vir
spect
A1

About 4 Vir

4 Vir is a common star. It lies about 193 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 5.31 and has spectral type A1.

Its spectrum reads A1 — 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 4 Vir in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 5.31, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, 4 Vir 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 4 Vir is a common star

4 Vir scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, On the zodiac 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.