Star profile
HIP 40321
Variable starWhat is HIP 40321
It burns in Puppis with the bluish-white blaze of B-class stars, the hottest and most violent the human eye can discern. Its light has been reaching us for a little over a thousand years —it set out when the northern Iberian Christian kingdoms were beginning the expansion that would reshape the peninsula and the monks of Cluny were reforming monastic life. It is a massive variable, dozens of times more luminous than the Sun. Its silent pulse reminds us that the brightest stars tend to live brief, intense lives.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 40321 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.
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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
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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 40321
- Constellation
- Puppis
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.09
- Distance
- 1016.2 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 123.493° · Dec -36.322°
- Catalogue
- HIP 40321 · HD 69081
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 380105.07
- HIP 388725.08
- 12 Puppis5.09
- HIP 354065.11
- HIP 346705.12