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Rare star 43 EP

HD 115473

RA 199.6167° · Dec -58.1371° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
43 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) +34
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 43

7 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) · +34

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads WC... — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.

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 9.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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 April — 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. ≈ 21.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 1.9 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
1.272
bv
0.206
constellation
Cen
dist ly
1244.8703
luminosity
26.9898
mag
9.18
name
HD 115473
spect
WC...

About HD 115473

HD 115473 is a rare star. It lies about 1,244.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 9.18 and has spectral type WC....

Its spectrum reads WC... — a Wolf-Rayet star: a stellar monster shedding its own outer layers in a ferocious wind, on its way to a supernova.

How to see it

Look for HD 115473 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 9.18, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 115473 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 115473 is a rare star

HD 115473 scores 43 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years) and Wolf-Rayet star (shedding itself) — 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.