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Rare star 34 EP

GL Gl 589B

RA 233.8349° · Dec 17.7132° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
34 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Deep red star +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Red dwarf +6
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Cool red M-type star +5
  • Star +3
Total score 34

16 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • Cool red M-type star · +5
  • Deep red star · +8
  • Red dwarf · +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 M6 — 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 15 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Serpens.
  • 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 May — 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. ≈ 816.4 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
14.222
binary
yes
bv
1.81
constellation
Ser
dist ly
46.4609
luminosity
0.0002
mag
14.99
name
GL Gl 589B
spect
M6

About GL Gl 589B

GL Gl 589B is a rare star. It lies about 46.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ser, shines at apparent magnitude 14.99 and has spectral type M6.

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 589B in the constellation Ser. At apparent magnitude 14.99, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 589B 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 589B is a rare star

GL Gl 589B scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Binary star, Cool red M-type star, Deep red star, Red dwarf 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.