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Trash star 12 EP

GL Gl 491B

RA 194.7568° · Dec -9.8339° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
12 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Binary star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 12

3 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3

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.

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 12.5 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Virgo.
  • 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 April — 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. ≈ 1.2 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 107 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
10.888
binary
yes
constellation
Vir
dist ly
68.5202
luminosity
0.0038
mag
12.5
name
GL Gl 491B

About GL Gl 491B

GL Gl 491B is a trash star. It lies about 68.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 12.5.

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 491B in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 12.5, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 491B 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 491B is a trash star

GL Gl 491B scores 12 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Binary star and On the zodiac — 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.