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Common star 18 EP

GL GJ 3220B

RA 50.7012° · Dec 27.1447° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
18 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Binary star +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 18

4 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +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 a — an A-type star: white-hot, typically about twice the Sun's mass, and the class most of the sky's famous bright stars belong to.

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 18 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Aries.
  • 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 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. ≈ 1.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
16.266
binary
yes
constellation
Ari
dist ly
72.479
luminosity
0
mag
18
name
GL GJ 3220B
spect
a

About GL GJ 3220B

GL GJ 3220B is a common star. It lies about 72.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ari, shines at apparent magnitude 18 and has spectral type a.

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 3220B in the constellation Ari. At apparent magnitude 18, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 3220B 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 3220B is a common star

GL GJ 3220B scores 18 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, On the zodiac 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.