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Rare star 36 EP

GL Gl 338B

RA 138.6054° · Dec 52.6864° · star

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
36 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Nearby (<25 ly) +12
  • Deep red star +8
  • Binary star +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 36

14 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Nearby (<25 ly) · +12
  • Binary star · +6
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +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.

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K2 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

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 7.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Ursa Major.
  • 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 February — 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. ≈ 366.3 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
8.672
binary
yes
bv
1.42
constellation
UMa
dist ly
20.8472
luminosity
0.0296
mag
7.7
name
GL Gl 338B
spect
K2

About GL Gl 338B

GL Gl 338B is a rare star. It lies about 20.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 7.7 and has spectral type K2.

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 338B in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 7.7, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 338B 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 338B is a rare star

GL Gl 338B scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 6 science badges — Star, Nearby (<25 ly), Binary star, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Orange K-type star 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.