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Trash star 14 EP

HD 120458

RA 207.7110° · Dec -53.9342° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
14 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Hot blue B-type star +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
Total score 14

1 more point to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Hot blue B-type star · +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • True brightness. It pours out about 1.4 million times as much light as the Sun. It only looks ordinary because it is so far away.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads B3IV/V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a subgiant, caught in the act of leaving the main sequence as the hydrogen in its core runs out.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.5 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.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Measured through blue and visual filters it comes out brilliant white (B−V 0.2) — hotter and whiter than the Sun, the colour of Sirius or Vega.
  • Why no green stars. No star ever looks green: a surface hot enough to peak in green also floods out plenty of red and blue, and your eye blends the mixture back to white.

Properties

absmag
-10.52
bv
0.17
constellation
Cen
luminosity
1406047.5241
mag
9.48
name
HD 120458
spect
B3IV/V

Nearby objects

About HD 120458

HD 120458 is a trash star. It sits in the constellation Cen, shines at apparent magnitude 9.48 and has spectral type B3IV/V.

Its spectrum reads B3IV/V — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for HD 120458 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 9.48, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, HD 120458 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 120458 is a trash star

HD 120458 scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Hot blue B-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.