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Common star 23 EP

Luyten's Star

RA 111.8521° · Dec 5.2258° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
23 pts · Common
Common 24 pts → Uncommon
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Star +3
Total score 23

1 more point to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • Has a proper name · +8

Trivia

Could we get there?

  • Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 217.9 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 19.4 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
  • At 10% light speed. ≈ 124 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
  • Distance. 12.4 light-years from Earth.

Look-back time

  • Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 2014.

Saying hello

  • Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 24.8 years round-trip.

How we found it

  • Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

Properties

absmag
11.94
bv
1.573
constellation
CMi
dist ly
12.4024
mag
9.84
name
Luyten's Star
named
yes
spect
M5

About Luyten's Star

Luyten's Star is a common star. It lies about 12.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation CMi, shines at apparent magnitude 9.84 and has spectral type M5.

Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

How to see it

Look for Luyten's Star in the constellation CMi. At apparent magnitude 9.84, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, Luyten's Star 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 Luyten's Star is a common star

Luyten's Star scores 23 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 Has a proper name — 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.

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Sky imagery and survey data courtesy of Aladin Lite & CDS, Strasbourg. Object data from the NASA Exoplanet Archive, JPL Small-Body Database, and the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue.