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Rare star 35 EP

GL GJ 1004

RA 3.0651° · Dec 50.4235° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) · +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads DA8 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Inside our stellar backyard: every radio broadcast humanity has ever made has already swept past it.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 14.4 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Cassiopeia.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 631.9 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 56.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
14.148
bv
0.42
constellation
Cas
dist ly
35.96
luminosity
0.0002
mag
14.36
name
GL GJ 1004
spect
DA8

About GL GJ 1004

GL GJ 1004 is a rare star. It lies about 36 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas, shines at apparent magnitude 14.36 and has spectral type DA8.

Its spectrum reads DA8 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 1004 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 14.36, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 1004 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 1004 is a rare star

GL GJ 1004 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), White dwarf (a burnt-out core) and Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) — 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.