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Rare variable star 47 EP

HD 107397

RA 185.1139° · Dec 61.3096° · star

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
47 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Strongly variable +10
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 47

3 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Giant star · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Strongly variable · +10
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads M3:III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • 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.

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 7.2 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ursa Major.
  • Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
  • 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. ≈ 30.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.431
bv
1.766
constellation
UMa
dist ly
1744.1499
luminosity
325.3869
mag
7.21
name
HD 107397
spect
M3:III
var amplitude
0.79
var designation
RY
var max
6.975
var min
7.765

About HD 107397

HD 107397 is a rare variable star. It lies about 1,744.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 7.21 and has spectral type M3:III.

Its spectrum reads M3:III — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for HD 107397 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 7.21, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 107397 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 107397 is a rare variable star

HD 107397 scores 47 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Never sets (northern circumpolar), Cool red M-type star, Giant star, Deep red 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.