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Uncommon star 22 EP

HD 117843

RA 203.6431° · Dec -63.2708° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
22 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Sun-like G-type star +8
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
Total score 22

12 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Sun-like G-type star · +8
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads G3/G5IV/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 8.6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Centaurus.
  • 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 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. ≈ 37.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 3.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
-0.482
bv
1.068
constellation
Cen
dist ly
2117.8959
luminosity
135.7688
mag
8.58
name
HD 117843
spect
G3/G5IV/V

About HD 117843

HD 117843 is an uncommon star. It lies about 2,117.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 8.58 and has spectral type G3/G5IV/V.

Its spectrum reads G3/G5IV/V — a G-type star: the very same spectral class as our own Sun.

How to see it

Look for HD 117843 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 8.58, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, HD 117843 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 117843 is an uncommon star

HD 117843 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), 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.