Gliese 318 is a
white dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes ...
in the constellation
Pyxis
Pyxis is a small and faint constellation in the southern sky. Abbreviated from Pyxis Nautica, its name is Latin for a mariner's compass (contrasting with Circinus, which represents a draftsman's compasses). Pyxis was introduced by Nicolas-Lo ...
. Its
spectral type
In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a prism or diffraction grating into a spectrum exhibiting the ...
is DA5.5 and it has a visual magnitude of 11.85,
which lies 26 light years away.
The star was too faint to have had its parallax measured by the ''
Hipparcos'' satellite. Earth-based measurement gives its parallax as 113.63 ± 1.97 milliarcseconds, yielding a distance of 28.7 ± 0.5 light-years.
It is around 45% as massive as the Sun but has only 0.15% its luminosity.
References
Pyxis (constellation)
White dwarfs
0318
Durchmusterung objects
{{whitedwarf-star-stub