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Trash star 9 EP

GL Gl 294B

RA 119.4738° · Dec -60.2978° · star

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
9 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Binary star +6
  • Star +3
Total score 9

6 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +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 k — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 9.9 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Carina.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 928 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
8.834
binary
yes
bv
1.34
constellation
Car
dist ly
52.8102
luminosity
0.0255
mag
9.88
name
GL Gl 294B
spect
k

About GL Gl 294B

GL Gl 294B is a trash star. It lies about 52.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Car, shines at apparent magnitude 9.88 and has spectral type k.

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 294B in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 9.88, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 294B 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 294B is a trash star

GL Gl 294B scores 9 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star and Binary star — 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.