Star profile
HIP 40096
Highly luminous starWhat is HIP 40096
This white star of Puppis does not strictly belong to our neighbourhood: its light reaches us after a journey of more than 326,000 years, when Neanderthals still walked Europe and fire was barely a domestic novelty. So luminous that the naked eye catches it despite the distance, it had already burnt out or transformed while the Roman Empire rose and fell. To look at it is to lean over an echo older than the written word.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 40096 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, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it never rises above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 6° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 81° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 47° N.
It ranks no. 35 in brightness among the 145 stars of Puppis in our catalogue. To find it, start from Naos, the brightest: it lies about 3° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 330,000 years ago.
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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 40096
- Constellation
- Puppis
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.73
- Distance
- 326200.0 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 122.858° · Dec -42.987°
- Catalogue
- HIP 40096 · HD 68601
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.
- NaosZeta Puppis2.21
- Pi Puppis2.71
- TureisRho Puppis2.83
- HIP 371734.69
- HIP 380894.69
- 19 Puppis4.72
- HIP 350204.75
- HIP 389014.76