← Back to dex
Common star 15 EP

GL Gl 288B

RA 116.4303° · Dec -33.9197° · star

Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 3 badges
15 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Binary star +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 15

7 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • 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 m — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

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 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. ≈ 871.2 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
15.681
binary
yes
bv
1.2
constellation
Pup
dist ly
49.5754
luminosity
0
mag
16.59
name
GL Gl 288B
spect
m

About GL Gl 288B

GL Gl 288B is a common star. It lies about 49.6 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Pup, shines at apparent magnitude 16.59 and has spectral type 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 Gl 288B in the constellation Pup. At apparent magnitude 16.59, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 288B 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 288B is a common star

GL Gl 288B scores 15 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Binary star 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.