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Uncommon star 24 EP

HD 106840

RA 184.3443° · Dec -63.2270° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
24 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Under the Southern Cross +8
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
Total score 24

10 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Under the Southern Cross · +8
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G5/G6IV/V — 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 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, 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.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 3.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 324.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
4.948
bv
0.7
constellation
Cru
dist ly
207.8752
luminosity
0.9137
mag
8.97
name
HD 106840
spect
G5/G6IV/V

About HD 106840

HD 106840 is an uncommon star. It lies about 207.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cru, shines at apparent magnitude 8.97 and has spectral type G5/G6IV/V.

Its spectrum reads G5/G6IV/V — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 106840 in the constellation Cru. At apparent magnitude 8.97, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 106840 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 106840 is an uncommon star

HD 106840 scores 24 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Under the Southern Cross, Sun-like G-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.