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Common star 21 EP

GL GJ 4285

RA 339.4901° · Dec -65.8223° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
21 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) +6
  • Star +3
Total score 21

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • Intrinsically feeble (Mv > +12) · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads m — 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 11.4 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Tucana.
  • Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
  • 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. ≈ 389.9 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 34.6 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
12.287
constellation
Tuc
dist ly
22.1874
luminosity
0.0011
mag
11.45
name
GL GJ 4285
spect
m

About GL GJ 4285

GL GJ 4285 is a common star. It lies about 22.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Tuc, shines at apparent magnitude 11.45 and has spectral type m.

Its spectrum reads m — an M-type red star — and M stars are the silent majority: roughly three of every four stars in the galaxy are one.

How to see it

Look for GL GJ 4285 in the constellation Tuc. At apparent magnitude 11.45, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, GL GJ 4285 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 4285 is a common star

GL GJ 4285 scores 21 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Nearby (<25 ly) 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.