Star profile
HIP 59173
Variable starWhat is HIP 59173
Deep in the southern Centaur burns a blue-white star whose brightness refuses to stay still: it pulses with a slow, breathing rhythm. Its light took some 438 years to reach us, leaving when Galileo first aimed his small telescope at the night sky over Padua. A young, massive sun —hotter and far more luminous than ours— wraps its atmosphere in shifting veils of ionised hydrogen.
Where it is and when to see it
HIP 59173 lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is April: 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
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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 59173
- Constellation
- Centaurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.46
- Distance
- 438.4 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 182.022° · Dec -50.661°
- Catalogue
- HIP 59173 · HD 105382
A symbolic commemorative gift: neither the signature nor the chosen name implies ownership of the star or recognition by the IAU.
Other stars in Centaurus
Centaurus has 174 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- Rigil KentaurusAlpha 1 Centauri-0.01
- HadarBeta Centauri0.61
- TolimanAlpha 2 Centauri1.35
- Upsilon 2 Centauri4.34
- Chi Centauri4.36
- HIP 703004.41
- HIP 578034.47
- HIP 652714.52