Star profile
HIP 50480
Hot blue starWhat is HIP 50480
In Vela, the sail of the ancient ship Argo, gleams a blue B-type star, far hotter and more massive than the Sun. Its light took roughly 532 years to cross the void: it set out around 1493, just as Columbus was returning from his first voyage to the Americas and Europe was beginning to redraw its idea of the world. A blue spark, intense and youthful on stellar scales, fills the cosmic sail of the southern sky.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 50480 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is March: 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 50480
- Constellation
- Vela
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.97
- Distance
- 532.1 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 154.618° · Dec -41.668°
- Catalogue
- HIP 50480 · HD 89461
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Vela
Vela has 127 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Gamma 2 Velorum1.75
- AlsephinaDelta Velorum1.93
- SuhailLambda Velorum2.23
- HIP 452705.92
- HIP 485275.95
- HIP 395275.96
- HIP 416745.98
- HIP 498445.98