Gamma Equulei, Latinized from γ Equulei, is a

double star In observational astronomy, a double star or visual double is a pair of stars that appear close to each other as viewed from Earth, especially with the aid of optical telescopes. This occurs because the pair either forms a binary star (i.e. a ...

in the northern

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Equuleus Equuleus is a faint constellation located just north of the celestial equator. Its name is Latin for "little horse", a foal. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern const ...

. It is located at a distance of around from Earth and is visible to the naked eye with a slightly variable

apparent visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction of the object's light ca ...

of around 4.7. The star is drifting closer to the

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

with a

radial velocity The radial velocity or line-of-sight velocity of a target with respect to an observer is the rate of change of the vector displacement between the two points. It is formulated as the vector projection of the target-observer relative velocity ...

of −16.5 km/s.

Properties

The primary component of γ Equulei is a

chemically peculiar star In astrophysics, chemically peculiar stars (CP stars) are stars with distinctly unusual Metallicity, metal abundances, at least in their surface layers. Classification Chemically peculiar stars are common among hot main-sequence (hydrogen-burning) ...

with a

stellar classification In astronomy, stellar classification is the classification of stars based on their stellar spectrum, spectral characteristics. Electromagnetic radiation from the star is analyzed by splitting it with a Prism (optics), prism or diffraction gratin ...

of . It has a spectrum corresponding to an A9

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a classification of stars which appear on plots of stellar color index, color versus absolute magnitude, brightness as a continuous and distinctive band. Stars on this band are known as main-sequence stars or d ...

star, but with unusual abundances of

strontium Strontium is a chemical element; it has symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, it is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is exposed to ...

chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

, and

europium Europium is a chemical element; it has symbol Eu and atomic number 63. It is a silvery-white metal of the lanthanide series that reacts readily with air to form a dark oxide coating. Europium is the most chemically reactive, least dense, and soft ...

. Stars with this type of spectral peculiarity are called

Ap star Ap and Bp stars are chemically peculiar stars (hence the "p") of spectral types A and B which show overabundances of some metals, such as strontium, chromium, or europium. In addition, larger overabundances are often seen in praseodymium and neodym ...

s. The abundances of some metals are believed to be due to chemical stratification in the slowly-rotating star, unusual for hot main sequence stars. A fairly wide range of spectral types have been published for γ Equulei, ranging from A5 to F1, some of them also indicating unusual abundances of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

in the spectrum. γ Equulei has particularly sharp absorption lines in its spectrum, a sign of very slow rotation. GammaEquLightCurve

γ Equulei undergoes rapid periodic variations in brightness, which places it among the rapidly oscillating Ap (roAp) stars. The apparent magnitude varies between extremes of +4.58 and +4.77. It shows pulsations in several periods near 12 minutes. The strongest pulsation is at 11.7 minutes; others are found at 11.9, 12.2, and 12.4 minutes. These are identified as a series of even and odd p-mode (pressure-induced) pulsations. The surface

magnetic field A magnetic field (sometimes called B-field) is a physical field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular ...

of γ Equulei undergoes slow variation, ranging from +577 G to –1,101 G. Although only 67 years of magnetic field measurements are available, a period of has been fit to the data. This is thought to be the rotation period of γ Equulei. γ Equulei has a magnitude 8.69 companion at an

angular separation Angular distance or angular separation is the measure of the angle between the orientation of two straight lines, rays, or vectors in three-dimensional space, or the central angle subtended by the radii through two points on a sphere. When t ...

of 1.26

arcsecond A minute of arc, arcminute (abbreviated as arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of a degree. Since one degree is of a turn, or complete rotation, one arcminute is of a tu ...

References

External links

www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=gamma+equuleiwww.alcyone.de/SIT/alpcvn/SIT003258
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamma Equulei Rapidly oscillating Ap stars Equuleus Equulei, Gamma Durchmusterung objects Equulei, 05 201601 104521 8097