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Epic star 51 EP

GL Gl 65B

RA 24.7530° · Dec -17.9498° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
51 pts · Epic
Epic 78 pts → Anomaly
  • Stellar next door (<10 ly) +25
  • Binary star +6
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 51

27 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Stellar next door (<10 ly) · +25
  • Binary star · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Red dwarf · +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What makes it special

  • Next-door neighbour. One of the closest objects of its kind to the Sun — a first port of call for any interstellar mission we ever build.
  • 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 dM5.5e — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 12.7 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Cetus.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Properties

absmag
15.603
binary
yes
constellation
Cet
dist ly
8.5671
luminosity
0
mag
12.7
name
GL Gl 65B
spect
dM5.5e

About GL Gl 65B

GL Gl 65B is an epic star. It lies about 8.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cet, shines at apparent magnitude 12.7 and has spectral type dM5.5e.

One of the closest objects of its kind to the Sun — a first port of call for any interstellar mission we ever build.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 65B in the constellation Cet. At apparent magnitude 12.7, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 65B 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 Gl 65B is an epic star

GL Gl 65B scores 51 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 27 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Stellar next door (<10 ly), Binary star, Cool red M-type star, Red dwarf 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.