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Trash star 13 EP

GL Gl 521.2B

RA 205.1046° · Dec 50.5160° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Binary star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4

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 10.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Ursa Major.
  • 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 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. ≈ 1.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 128.5 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
8.451
binary
yes
bv
1.36
constellation
UMa
dist ly
82.2794
luminosity
0.0363
mag
10.46
name
GL Gl 521.2B

About GL Gl 521.2B

GL Gl 521.2B is a trash star. It lies about 82.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa and shines at apparent magnitude 10.46.

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 521.2B in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 10.46, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 521.2B 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 521.2B is a trash star

GL Gl 521.2B scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Binary star and Never sets (northern circumpolar) — 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.