Skip to main content
Stelvia
Back to the selector

Star profile

HIP 38957

Variable star
3D likeness based on its real data · class B · ~15,000 K

What is HIP 38957

Set within the ship Puppis burns a blue-white B-type beacon whose light has ridden 959 years to reach us. It set out when Nuremberg workshops were casting the first movable type of the German Renaissance. Its glow is not steady —it pulses slowly, like the long heartbeat of a giant— and surpasses the Sun in mass, heat and radiated energy by many thousands.

Where it is and when to see it

HIP 38957 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is February: the Sun sits at the opposite point of the sky and the star culminates around midnight. How high it climbs above the horizon depends on the latitude you watch from.

Find it on the sky map

It opens in your browser. Free, no account, nothing to install.

The signature wall

Stelvia's sky works like a signature wall: anyone can leave their name and a message on a real star, and that signature goes up on the map for everyone to read. Signing is free.

A signature without a lock can be replaced by someone else's. The lock makes the signature permanent and lets you choose a symbolic name for the star, always shown next to the star's catalogue identifier. How the lock works

If you don't have an account yet, we'll ask for an email to confirm it's you: we send you a link and that's it, no password.

A public signature from a real person. The chosen name is a symbolic denomination within Stelvia, with no official standing or IAU recognition: the sky is not for sale and belongs to no one.

Astronomical data for HIP 38957

Constellation
Puppis
Apparent magnitude
4.47
Distance
959.4 light years
Coordinates (J2000)
RA 119.560° · Dec -49.245°
Catalogue
HIP 38957 · HD 65818

A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.

Other stars in Puppis

Puppis has 145 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.

See all 145 stars in Puppis