Data source: ESA Gaia DR3
A distant, hot beacon: Gaia DR3 4062361007130069504
Within the sweep of Gaia’s vast catalog, one star stands out not for its brightness in our night sky, but for the story it tells about distance, temperature, and the edges of our Milky Way. Gaia DR3 4062361007130069504 is a distant, hot blue-white beacon whose light travels across roughly eight thousand years to reach Earth. Its data, drawn from Gaia’s DR3 release, offer a snapshot of a star blazing with extreme temperature while sitting far from us in the Galactic disk. The combination of a substantial distance, a high surface temperature, and a sizeable radius makes it a compelling example of how Gaia helps map the Galaxy’s most distant, energetic stars.
What the numbers reveal about this star
- The Gaia DR3 entry lists a distance of about 2,451 parsecs, which translates to roughly 8,000 light-years. In cosmic terms, that is several thousand light-years beyond the bright stars you can see with the naked eye, yet still within our Milky Way. Such distances illuminate the structure of our Galaxy’s outer regions and its spiral arms.
- In Gaia’s G-band, the star has a mean magnitude of about 14.5. That puts it well beyond what the unaided eye can detect under dark skies (the naked-eye limit is around magnitude 6). With a small telescope or good binoculars, a dedicated observer might glimpse a faint point of light, but more often this object demands moderately larger apertures and steady skies to study.
- The estimated effective temperature sits around 33,000 K, signaling a hot, blue-white star in the early-type class. Hotter than the Sun by a factor of several, such stars glow with a blue-white hue and radiate strongly in the ultraviolet. However, the catalog’s BP–RP color indicators can appear unusually red for this temperature, highlighting the typical caution needed when interpreting color indices for distant, heavily reddened objects or in cases where measurements are affected by extinction or binaries. In short: the temperature tells a blue star; the color index hints at complexities that deserve careful follow-up.
- The radius is listed at about 5.83 solar radii. That makes it larger than the Sun, consistent with a hot, luminous star in an evolved phase (a bright giant or subgiant). When you combine the size with the high temperature, the star’s luminosity becomes enormous, tens of thousands of times brighter than the Sun.
- The database shows NaN entries for certain flame-based mass and radius estimates, so we rely on the provided radius and temperature to describe its nature rather than pushing those particular fields.
Color, temperature, and what they imply
At first glance, a 33,000 K surface would be unmistakably blue. Such a temperature aligns with spectral types in the O- to early B-range, where stars shine with a piercing blue glow and pump out energy most efficiently at ultraviolet wavelengths. The star’s large radius relative to the Sun supports the idea that it is a luminous, early-type object, possibly a giant or subgiant that has evolved from its initial main-sequence life. Yet Gaia DR3’s BP–RP color suggests a redder appearance, which can happen for several reasons in distant stars: interstellar dust reddening the light, photometric uncertainties at faint magnitudes, or the presence of a companion altering the combined color. The takeaway is clear: when distant, hot stars show color-redness in one metric while temperature points blue, further observations (spectroscopy, extinction estimates) are valuable to pin down the precise nature. 🌌
Position in the sky and what region it occupies
With a right ascension around 269.97 degrees (roughly 18 hours) and a declination near −29 degrees, this star sits in the southern celestial hemisphere. It lies well into the southern sky, away from the bright, crowded band of the zodiac, and toward a region of the Milky Way populated by dust clouds and distant star-forming complexes. Its exact constellation placement isn’t spelled out in the data excerpt, but the coordinates place it to the south of the celestial equator, a reminder of how Gaia’s survey tracks stars across the whole sky—from bright neighborhood neighbors to far-flung, luminous beacons near—and across—the Milky Way’s spiral structure.
Why Gaia DR3 4062361007130069504 is worth a closer look
First, its distance and luminosity place it among the Galaxy’s more distant blue-white stars. Its temperature and radius point to a star that is hot and luminous, yet not a simple main-sequence star; the combination suggests a post-main-sequence phase for a hot, massive star. This is a window into how stars of considerable mass and energy evolve, and how their light carries information about the structure of our Galaxy. The star also serves as a case study for the challenges of photometric interpretation at great distances: color indices can be affected by dust and measurement limits, reminding us that a single number rarely tells the whole story.
“Even when a star hides behind dust and distance, its light carries a message about our Galaxy’s farthest reaches.”
For readers who enjoy the celestial math, the gentle balance of R and T here translates into luminosity that dwarfs that of the Sun. If you picture the Sun as a small lamp, this star would glow with the brilliance of tens of thousands of Sonnens, a cosmic lighthouse shining from a few thousand parsecs away. It’s a humbling reminder that the universe hosts a spectrum of objects—from the faintest specks seen only in powerful surveys to the brightest beacons that define our understanding of stellar evolution.
As you explore Gaia’s catalog, consider how these faint stars help calibrate distances, temperatures, and lifecycles across the Galaxy. The data behind Gaia DR3 4062361007130069504 illustrate both the power and the nuance of modern stellar astronomy: precise numbers paired with thoughtful interpretation lead to a richer picture of the cosmos.
Feeling inspired to look up more? Gaia data are publicly accessible, and many star stories begin with a simple search for a Gaia DR3 source ID like 4062361007130069504. If you enjoy a hands-on approach to stargazing, pair such data with a sky map or a stargazing app to locate where this distant beacon sits in the sky tonight. 🌠🔭
Slim Glossy Phone Case Lexan Polycarbonate
This star, though unnamed in human records, is one among billions charted by ESA’s Gaia mission. Each article in this collection brings visibility to the silent majority of our galaxy — stars known only by their light.