About HIP 63988
HIP 63988 is a trash star. It lies about 296.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Com and shines at apparent magnitude 11.51.
It is a genuine dim bulb — only about 17.6% of the Sun's light output.
Trash star 3 EP
HIP 63988
RA 196.6909° · Dec 29.7751° · star
Score breakdown
· 1 badgeTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star +3
Total score 3
12 more points to reach Common.
Badges
- Star · +3
Trivia
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 11.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Coma Berenices.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — 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. ≈ 5.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 463.4 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 2968 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
Properties
- absmag
- 6.715
- constellation
- Com
- dist ly
- 296.7752
- luminosity
- 0.1795
- mag
- 11.51
- name
- HIP 63988
How to see it
Look for HIP 63988 in the constellation Com. At apparent magnitude 11.51, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.
Like any astronomical target, HIP 63988 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 63988 is a trash star
HIP 63988 scores 3 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 1 science badge — 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.