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Uncommon star 31 EP

GL GJ 4072

RA 280.8555° · Dec 4.3388° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • White dwarf (a burnt-out core) · +22
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads DA6 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

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 14.9 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Serpens.
  • 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 July — 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. ≈ 126.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
12.952
bv
0.14
constellation
Ser
dist ly
80.7318
luminosity
0.0006
mag
14.92
name
GL GJ 4072
spect
DA6

About GL GJ 4072

GL GJ 4072 is an uncommon star. It lies about 80.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ser, shines at apparent magnitude 14.92 and has spectral type DA6.

Its spectrum reads DA6 — a white dwarf — the exposed, Earth-sized cinder of a dead star, with nothing left to burn.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 4072 in the constellation Ser. At apparent magnitude 14.92, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 4072 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 GJ 4072 is an uncommon star

GL GJ 4072 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, White dwarf (a burnt-out core) 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.