Star

Spica

Spica is a blue-white star 250 light-years away, seen as it was 250 years ago, shining 2 070 times as bright as the Sun.

Two hot stars so close they orbit every four days and pull each other out of round. Hipparchus is believed to have found precession from its position.

Key facts

Distance

250 light-years

Brightness from Earth

magnitude 0.98

Spectral type

B1V

Catalogue

HIP 65474

See it from here

Bright enough to see with your own eyes from a dark place.

How the map draws it

Drawn as a point of light, sized by how bright it looks from where you are — the kind of thing, not this exact one.