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Uncommon star 23 EP

HD 102879

RA 177.5446° · Dec -75.6387° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
23 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
Total score 23

11 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G8/K0III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

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 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Musca.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 33.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
0.505
bv
1.18
constellation
Mus
dist ly
1907.345
luminosity
54.7016
mag
9.34
name
HD 102879
spect
G8/K0III

About HD 102879

HD 102879 is an uncommon star. It lies about 1,907.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Mus, shines at apparent magnitude 9.34 and has spectral type G8/K0III.

Its spectrum reads G8/K0III — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 102879 in the constellation Mus. At apparent magnitude 9.34, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 102879 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 HD 102879 is an uncommon star

HD 102879 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Sun-like G-type star and Giant 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.