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Rare variable star 42 EP

HIP 59026

RA 181.5320° · Dec -61.2569° · star

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges
42 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Blue-white star +5
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 42

8 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5
  • Blue-white star · +5
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.3 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B2IVe — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.
  • It changes. This star does not hold still: its brightness rises and falls on a rhythm of hours, days or years, either pulsing in size or being eclipsed by a companion.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.6 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Crux.
  • 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out blue-white (B−V -0) — the hallmark of a surface far hotter than the Sun's.

Properties

absmag
-10.43
bv
-0.021
constellation
Cru
luminosity
1294195.8414
mag
9.57
name
HIP 59026
spect
B2IVe
var amplitude
0.75
var designation
AI
var max
9.503
var min
10.253

About HIP 59026

HIP 59026 is a rare variable star. It sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 9.57 and has spectral type B2IVe.

Its spectrum reads B2IVe — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HIP 59026 in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 9.57, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HIP 59026 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 59026 is a rare variable star

HIP 59026 scores 42 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Variable star, Under the Southern Cross, Hot blue B-type star, Subgiant (leaving the main sequence), Blue-white star, Strongly variable and A named variable 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.