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Rare star 49 EP

GL Gl 223.2

RA 88.7902° · Dec -4.1698° · star

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
49 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) +22
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 49

1 more point to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) · +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads DZ9 — 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 Orion.
  • 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 December — 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. ≈ 370.2 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 32.9 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
15.399
bv
1.05
constellation
Ori
dist ly
21.0694
luminosity
0.0001
mag
14.45
name
GL Gl 223.2
spect
DZ9

About GL Gl 223.2

GL Gl 223.2 is a rare star. It lies about 21.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 14.45 and has spectral type DZ9.

Its spectrum reads DZ9 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 223.2 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 14.45, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 223.2 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 223.2 is a rare star

GL Gl 223.2 scores 49 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star, Nearby (<25 ly), In Orion's hunting ground, 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.