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Common star 17 EP

GL Gl 255B

RA 104.3224° · Dec -35.5065° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
17 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Binary star +6
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) +5
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
Total score 17

5 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) · +5

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 F8 IV-V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 7.1 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Puppis.
  • 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 January — 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. ≈ 2.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
3.923
binary
yes
constellation
Pup
dist ly
140.888
luminosity
2.3486
mag
7.1
name
GL Gl 255B
spect
F8 IV-V

About GL Gl 255B

GL Gl 255B is a common star. It lies about 140.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 7.1 and has spectral type F8 IV-V.

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 Gl 255B in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 7.1, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 255B 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 255B is a common star

GL Gl 255B scores 17 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, Yellow-white F-type star and Subgiant (leaving the main sequence) — 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.