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Common star 15 EP

HD 106497

RA 183.7513° · Dec -0.6610° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K0 — 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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 42.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 3.7 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.442
bv
0.903
constellation
Vir
dist ly
2398.2058
luminosity
130.8579
mag
8.89
name
HD 106497
spect
K0

About HD 106497

HD 106497 is a common star. It lies about 2,398.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 8.89 and has spectral type K0.

Its spectrum reads K0 — 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 HD 106497 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 8.89, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 106497 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 106497 is a common star

HD 106497 scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), On the zodiac 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.