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BR Piscium

Gliese 908, Lalande 46650

A very faint star relatively close to the First Point of Aries in the sky, falling slightly to the east of the Circlet formation in Pisces. With a visual magnitude averaging +8.9, BR Piscium is far too faint to be seen with the naked eye. The star lies in the relatively close neighbourhood of the Solar System, at a distance of just nineteen light years.

Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas

BR Piscium appears faint in the skies of Earth not because of its distance, but because it is an extremely low-luminosity red dwarf star, emitting very little light energy. Indeed, its energy output is only a fraction that of a typical Sun-like star (equivalent to about 3% that of the Sun itself). This is also a small star, being less than half the Sun's diameter.

The designation style BR indicates that this is a variable star, and in common with many red dwarfs, BR Piscium is a BY Draconis variable. Patterns of starspots and surface activity on the star cause its brightness to fluctuate in an unpredictable way, decreasing its apparent magnitude below +9 from time to time.

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