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Trash star 12 EP

GL Gl 496B

RA 195.9401° · Dec -20.5834° · 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 6.4 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Virgo.
  • 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 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. ≈ 1.6 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 146 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
4.114
binary
yes
constellation
Vir
dist ly
93.4812
luminosity
1.9697
mag
6.4
name
GL Gl 496B

About GL Gl 496B

GL Gl 496B is a trash star. It lies about 93.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 6.4.

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 496B in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 6.4, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 496B 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 496B is a trash star

GL Gl 496B 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.