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Trash star 10 EP

GL Gl 439

RA 176.1707° · Dec 30.9593° · star

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
10 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
  • Star +3
  • Orange K-type star +3
Total score 10

5 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star · +3
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
  • Orange K-type star · +3

Trivia

What it actually is

  • Spectral class. Its spectrum reads K8 — 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 9 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 March — 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. ≈ 1.5 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 132 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

absmag
6.902
bv
1.111
constellation
UMa
dist ly
84.5403
luminosity
0.1511
mag
8.97
name
GL Gl 439
spect
K8

Nearby objects

About GL Gl 439

GL Gl 439 is a trash star. It lies about 84.5 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa, shines at apparent magnitude 8.97 and has spectral type K8.

Its spectrum reads K8 — a K-type star. Orange K dwarfs are the marathon runners of the galaxy, burning steadily for tens of billions of years.

How to see it

Look for GL Gl 439 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 8.97, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, GL Gl 439 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 439 is a trash star

GL Gl 439 scores 10 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star, Never sets (northern circumpolar) and Orange K-type 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.