Gliese 318

Gliese 318
Observation data
Epoch J2000      Equinox J2000
Constellation Pyxis
Right ascension 08h 41m 32.42908s
Declination −32° 56′ 32.9158″
Apparent magnitude (V) 11.85
Characteristics
Evolutionary stage white dwarf
Spectral type DA5.5
U−B color index −0.59
B−V color index +0.25
Astrometry
Radial velocity (Rv)+29.3±2.9 km/s
Proper motion (μ) RA: −1,061.158 mas/yr
Dec.: +1,345.900 mas/yr
Parallax (π)117.3961±0.0205 mas
Distance27.783 ± 0.005 ly
(8.518 ± 0.001 pc)
Absolute magnitude (MV)12.22±0.04
Details
Mass0.47±0.02 M
Radius0.0148 ± 0.00092 R
Luminosity1.32+0.13
−0.12
×10−3
 L
Surface gravity (log g)7.77±0.03 cgs
Temperature9,040±190 K
Age590±40 Myr
Other designations
GJ 318, CD−32°5613, LHS 253, L 532-81, LTT 3218, WD 0839-327
Database references
SIMBADdata
ARICNSdata

Gliese 318 is a white dwarf in the constellation Pyxis. Its spectral type is DA5.5 and it has a visual magnitude of 11.85, and lies 27.8 light-years (8.5 parsecs) away.

The star was too faint to have had its parallax measured by the Hipparcos satellite. Earth-based measurement in 2009 gave its parallax as 113.63±1.97 milliarcseconds, yielding a distance of 28.7±0.5 light-years; this parallax measurement has since been substantially improved by Gaia.

Gliese 318 is a rather young white dwarf with an age estimated to be 590 million years. Its temperature is around 9,000 K and it shines with 0.13 percent of the luminosity of the Sun. Like all white dwarfs, Gliese 318 is small, with just 1.5 percent the Sun's radius (1.6 R🜨), but has around half the Sun's mass.

Bragaglia et al. suspect this star to be a double white dwarf due to strong spectral line variations. From Gaia DR2 it was not possible to confirm this claim. It is still possible that Gliese 318 is a double white dwarf and additional spectroscopic observations are needed in order to confirm this claim. Gliese 318 could be the closest double white dwarf to earth.