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Common star 20 EP

GL GJ 9721B

RA 317.1884° · Dec -4.4278° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
20 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Deep red star +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Star +3
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 20

2 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Binary star · +6
  • On the zodiac · +3
  • Deep red star · +8

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 13.4 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Aquarius.
  • 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 August — 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. ≈ 1.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 114.2 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
11.647
binary
yes
bv
1.63
constellation
Aqr
dist ly
73.1291
luminosity
0.0019
mag
13.4
name
GL GJ 9721B

About GL GJ 9721B

GL GJ 9721B is a common star. It lies about 73.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aqr and shines at apparent magnitude 13.4.

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 GJ 9721B in the constellation Aqr. At apparent magnitude 13.4, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 9721B 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 9721B is a common star

GL GJ 9721B scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Binary star, On the zodiac and Deep red star — 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.