An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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The prototype of the → L dwarf class. It has a spectral type of L4 V. This object was discovered by Becklin & Zuckerman (1988, Nature 336, 656) as the red companion to a → white dwarf (DA4) lying 104 → light-years away. Its true nature was however recognized several years later (Kirkpatrick et al. 1993, ApJ 406, 701). It has an → effective temperature of 1900 K and a luminosity about 10^-4 times that of the Sun (→ solar luminosity).

GD, referring to Giclas Dwarf, a catalog of white dwarf stars compiled at the Lowell Observatory (Giclas et al. 1980, LowOB 8, 157).