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Uncommon star 29 EP

GL GJ 3881A

RA 224.3885° · Dec -0.1676° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
29 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Giant star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 29

5 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Binary star · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Orange K-type star · +3
  • Giant star · +6

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Not one star but two. It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K1III — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.
  • Where it is in life. It is a giant. It has already exhausted its core hydrogen and swollen up enormously in response.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 5.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Virgo.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Properties

absmag
0.754
binary
yes
bv
1.131
constellation
Vir
dist ly
291.4709
luminosity
43.4911
mag
5.51
name
GL GJ 3881A
spect
K1III

About GL GJ 3881A

GL GJ 3881A is an uncommon star. It lies about 291.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir, shines at apparent magnitude 5.51 and has spectral type K1III.

It is a binary: two stars orbiting a shared centre of mass. More than half of all the 'stars' you can see are actually multiple systems.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 3881A in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 5.51, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 3881A is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why GL GJ 3881A is an uncommon star

GL GJ 3881A scores 29 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Binary star, On the zodiac, Orange K-type star and Giant star — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.