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Common star 16 EP

GL Gl 397.2

RA 157.8416° · Dec -53.7155° · star

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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
16 pts · Common
Common 22 pts → Uncommon
  • Naked-eye visible +8
  • Star +3
  • Yellow-white F-type star +3
  • Main-sequence star +2
Total score 16

6 more points to reach Uncommon.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Naked-eye visible · +8
  • Yellow-white F-type star · +3
  • Main-sequence star · +2

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads F6V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.
  • Where it is in life. It is on the main sequence, quietly fusing hydrogen in its core exactly as the Sun does.

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 4.9 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Vela.
  • Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south 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. ≈ 1.3 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

absmag
3.197
bv
0.5
constellation
Vel
dist ly
71.1356
luminosity
4.5835
mag
4.89
name
GL Gl 397.2
spect
F6V

About GL Gl 397.2

GL Gl 397.2 is a common star. It lies about 71.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vel, shines at apparent magnitude 4.89 and has spectral type F6V.

Its spectrum reads F6V — an F-type star — a little hotter, whiter and shorter-lived than the Sun.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 397.2 in the constellation Vel. At apparent magnitude 4.89, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 397.2 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 397.2 is a common star

GL Gl 397.2 scores 16 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Yellow-white F-type star and Main-sequence 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.