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Rare star 34 EP

GL GJ 3420

RA 105.2136° · Dec 31.9642° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 34

16 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) · +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads DC9 — 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 16.6 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Gemini.
  • 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 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. ≈ 1.1 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 95 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
15.216
bv
0.96
constellation
Gem
dist ly
60.8499
luminosity
0.0001
mag
16.57
name
GL GJ 3420
spect
DC9

About GL GJ 3420

GL GJ 3420 is a rare star. It lies about 60.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Gem, shines at apparent magnitude 16.57 and has spectral type DC9.

Its spectrum reads DC9 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 3420 in the constellation Gem. At apparent magnitude 16.57, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 3420 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 3420 is a rare star

GL GJ 3420 scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

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