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Trash star 9 EP

GL GJ 3197B

RA 45.9477° · Dec -12.8541° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
9 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Binary star +6
  • Star +3
Total score 9

6 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary 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 k-m — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 13.5 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Eridanus.
  • 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 November — 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. ≈ 1.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
11.906
binary
yes
constellation
Eri
dist ly
67.9491
luminosity
0.0015
mag
13.5
name
GL GJ 3197B
spect
k-m

About GL GJ 3197B

GL GJ 3197B is a trash star. It lies about 67.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Eri, shines at apparent magnitude 13.5 and has spectral type k-m.

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 3197B in the constellation Eri. At apparent magnitude 13.5, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 3197B 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 3197B is a trash star

GL GJ 3197B scores 9 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Binary 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.