HIP 55044 Star Facts (Distance, Age, Colour & more)

HIP 55044 is a Main Sequence Star that is located in the constellation of Ursa Major. Based on the spectral type (F6V+...) of the star, the HIP 55044 colour is yellow to white . It is not part of the Ursa Major constellation outline but is within the borders of the constellation.

The star can not be seen by the naked eye, you need a telescope to see it.

HIP 55044 is located in the Milky Way galaxy, this is the galaxy that you reside in. In case you're wondering, HIP 55044 is not located within the Solar System, there is only one star in the Solar System and that is the Sun.

There are no Exoplanets recorded on the site for the star and is most likely the case. If an exoplanet had been spotted or confirmed, it will probably be recorded in Exoplanet EU database.

No one has visited HIP 55044 and we have no probes on a rendezvous with the star.

The star has an estimated age of 3.8 Billion of Years old but could be as young as 2.9 to 4.5 Billion Years Old according to Hipparcos.

HIP 55044 is a Binary or Multiple star system.

Using the most recent figures given by the 2007 Hipparcos data, HIP 55044 distance from Earth is 111.28 light years. When you look at HIP 55044, you are in fact looking back in time, you are seeing how it looks years ago. Roughly, change the distance from light years to years, that will tell you how long ago we are looking at the star.

HIP 55044 Location

The location of the main sequence star in the night sky is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), these are equivalent to the Longitude and Latitude on the Earth. The Right Ascension is how far expressed in time (hh:mm:ss) the star is along the celestial equator. If the R.A. is positive then its eastwards. The Declination is how far north or south the object is compared to the celestial equator and is expressed in degrees. For HIP 55044, the location is 11h 16m 03.88 and +52° 46` 22.9 .

HIP 55044 Radial Velocity and Proper Motion

HIP 55044 Proper Motion

All stars like planets orbit round a central spot, in the case of planets, its the central star such as the Sun. In the case of a star, its the galactic centre. The constellations that we see today will be different than they were 50,000 years ago or 50,000 years from now. Proper Motion details the movements of these stars and are measured in milliarcseconds. The star is moving 56.52 ± 0.57 milliarcseconds/year towards the north and 160.61 ± 1.09 milliarcseconds/year east if we saw them in the horizon.

HIP 55044 Radial Velocity

The Radial Velocity, that is the speed at which the star is towards the Sun is -42.60000 km/s with an error of about 0.20 km/s . When the value is negative then the star and the Sun are getting closer to one another, likewise, a positive number means that two stars are moving away. Its nothing to fear as the stars are so far apart, they won't collide in our life-time, if ever.

HIP 55044 Physical Properties

HIP 55044 Colour

Based on the star's spectral type of F6V+... , HIP 55044's colour and type is yellow to white main sequence star.

There is no relationship between colour and size, a red star can be both the largest and the smallest stars in the Universe. Small stars are more energy efficient than larger stars and live longer.

HIP 55044 Temperature

Based on the spectral type as we don't have the exact temperature', we can deduce that the surface temperature of the star is in the order of 6,000 and 7,500K based on the notes from Harvard University. To put this in context, the temperature of our Sun is about 5,778 Kelvin as said by Google.

• Blue (O) > 25,000K
• Blue/White (B) = 10,000 - 25,000K
• Blue/White (A) = 7,500 - 10,000K
• Yellow/White (F) = 6,000 - 7,500K
• Yellow (G) = 5,000 - 6,000K
• Orange/Red (K) = 3,500 - 5000K
• Red (M) = < 3,500K
• Red (C) = < 3,500K

There is a relationship between colour and temperature, stars that are closer to red in the rainbow spectrum are cooler whereas those closer to blue are hotter. Those that are blue stars are normally identified as being young stars whereas redder stars are usually older stars, ones that are at the end of their life. An example of when its a Blue Straggler, the star has stolen matter from a nearby star and grown to appear youthful when its not. These stars are found mainly in Star Clusters.

HIP 55044 Luminosity

Luminosity is the amount of energy that a star pumps out and its relative to the amount that our star, the Sun gives out. Our star, the Sun's value is 1. ' The figure of 2.44 that I have given is based on the value in the Simbad Hipparcos Extended Catalogue at the University of Strasbourg from 2012. The star generates more energy than our star.

HIP 55044 Radius

HIP 55044 estimated radius has been calculated as being 1.397 times bigger than the Sun. The Sun's radius is 695,800km, therefore the star's radius is an estimated 971,811.757.km. If you need the diameter of the star, you just need to multiple the radius by 2. However with the 2007 release of updated Hipparcos files, the radius is now calculated at being round 1.222. The figure is derived at by using the formula from SDSS rather than peer reviewed papers. It has been known to produce widely incorrect figures.

HIP 55044 Iron Abundance

HIP 55044 Iron Abundance is -0.36 with an error value of 0.03 Fe/H with the Sun has a value of 1 to put it into context. The value comes from the Hipparcos Extended Catalog.

HIP 55044 Age

The age of HIP 55044 according to Hipparcos data files put the star at an age of about 3.8 Billion years old but could be between 2.9 and 4.5 Billion years old. In comparison, the Sun's age is about 4.6 Billion Years Old.

HIP 55044 Apparent (Brightness) and Absolute Magnitudes

Absolute Magnitude is the apparent magnitude of the star from a distance of 10 parsecs or 32.6 light years. This assumes that there is nothing in between the object and the viewer such as dust clouds. To really compare the brightness of the star, it is best to use Absolute rather than Apparent Magnitude.

Magnitude, whether it be apparent/visual or absolute magnitude is measured by a number, the smaller the number, the brighter the Star is. Our own Sun is the brightest star and therefore has the lowest of all magnitudes, -26.74. A faint star will have a high number.

HIP 55044 apparent magnitude is 6.51, this is a measure of the brightness of the star as seen from Earth. Apparent Magnitude is also known as Visual Magnitude. If you used the 1997 Parallax value, HIP 55044 absolute magnitude is 3.55 If you used the 2007 Parallax value, HIP 55044 absolute magnitude is 3.84.

Visible from Earth

HIP 55044 cannot be seen from the Earth with the naked eye, it is just too far and too dim to be seen. Only objects with a magnitude of 6.5 or less can be seen on a clear night.

HIP 55044 Distance from Earth

Using the original Hipparcos data that was released in 1997, the parallax to the star was given as 25.55000 which means HIP 55044 distance from Earth is 127.66 light years away from Earth or 39.14 parsecs. If you want that in miles, it is about 750,465,315,140,619.653, based on 1 Ly = 5,878,625,373,183.61 miles.

In 2007, Hipparcos data was revised with a new parallax of 29.31000 which puts HIP 55044 distance from Earth as 111.28 light years or 34.12 parsecs. It should not be taken as though the star is moving closer or further away from Earth. It is purely that the distance was recalculated.

Using the 2007 distance, the star is roughly 7,037,706.15 Astronomical Units from the Earth/Sun give or take a few. An Astronomical Unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The number of A.U. is the number of times that the star is from the Earth compared to the Sun. The star's Galacto-Centric Distance is 7,416 Parsecs or 24,188.274 Light Years. The Galacto-Centric Distance is the distance from the star to the Centre of the Galaxy which is Sagittarius A*.

Alternative Names and Meanings

• HIP55044 is the reference name for the star in the Hipparcos Star Catalogue.
• The Id of the star in the Henry Draper catalogue is HD97855. The catalogue was started by the American doctor and has been expanded on over the years.
• The Gliese ID of the star is GL 421.1A. The star was part of the original catalogue devised by German Astronomer Wilheim Gliese of stars located within 20 parsecs of Earth. Star Names
• The star is catalogued in the Tycho-2 star catalogue as TYC-3825-1304-1. The catalogue lists 2 millions stars and its homepage is E.S.A.
• BD number is the number that the star was filed under in the Durchmusterung or Bonner Durchmusterung, a star catalogue that was put together by the Bonn Observatory between 1859 to 1903. The star's BD Number is BD+53 1480.

HIP 55044 Travel Time

The time it will take to travel to this star is dependent on how fast you are going. U.G. has done some calculations as to how long it will take going at differing speeds. A note about the calculations, when I'm talking about years, I'm talking non-leap years only (365 days).

The New Horizons space probe is the fastest probe that we've sent into space at the time of writing. Its primary mission was to visit Pluto which at the time of launch (2006), Pluto was still a planet.

Mach 1 is the speed of sound, Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound. Corncorde before it was retired was the fastest commercial airline across the Atlantic and only one that could do Mach 2.

Description	Speed (m.p.h.)	Time (years)
Walking	4	18,656,554,618.78
Car	120	621,885,153.959
Airbus A380	736	101,394,318.58
Mach 1	767.269	97,262,131.632
Mach 2	1,534.54	48,631,002.434
New Horizons	33,000	2,261,400.56
Speed of Light	670,616,629	111.28

Source of Information

The source of the information if it has a Hip I.D. is from Simbad, the Hipparcos data library based at the University at Strasbourg, France. Hipparcos was a E.S.A. satellite operation launched in 1989 for four years. The items in red are values that I've calculated so they could well be wrong. Information regarding Metallicity and/or Mass is from the E.U. Exoplanets. The information was obtained as of 12th Feb 2017.

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