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Uncommon variable star 26 EP

HD 107957

RA 186.1413° · Dec -49.4402° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
26 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Deep red star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Variable star +5
  • Gently variable +4
  • A named variable star +3
Total score 26

8 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Variable star · +5
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Gently variable · +4
  • A named variable star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads Npvar — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.
  • 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 7.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Centaurus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • 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. ≈ 32.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
-1.228
bv
1.995
constellation
Cen
dist ly
1832.3372
luminosity
269.8982
mag
7.52
name
HD 107957
spect
Npvar
var amplitude
0.3
var designation
S
var max
7.405
var min
7.705

About HD 107957

HD 107957 is an uncommon variable star. It lies about 1,832.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 7.52 and has spectral type Npvar.

Its spectrum reads Npvar — a carbon star, wrapped in so much soot that its light is filtered to a deep ruby red.

How to see it

Look for HD 107957 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 7.52, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 107957 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 107957 is an uncommon variable star

HD 107957 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Variable star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Deep red star, Gently 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.