Eta Cephei (η Cep, η Cephei) is a

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

in the northern

circumpolar constellation A circumpolar star is a star that, as viewed from a given latitude on Earth, never sets below the horizon due to its apparent proximity to one of the celestial poles. Circumpolar stars are therefore visible from said location toward the nearest po ...

of Cepheus. With an

apparent visual magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's lig ...

of 3.4, this is a third magnitude star that, according to the

Bortle Dark-Sky Scale The Bortle scale (also known as the Bottle scale) is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky's brightness of a particular location. It quantifies the astronomical observability of celestial objects and the interference caused by lig ...

, is readily visible to the naked eye.

Parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...

measurements put it at a distance of from Earth.

Etymology

Eta Cephei, along with α Cephei (Alderamin) and β Cep (Alfirk), were identified as ''Al Kawākib al Firḳ'' (الكوكب الفرق), meaning "the Stars of The Flock" by

Ulug Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...

. Together with θ Cephei, it form ''Al Kidr''. Among its other designations includes the name ''Kabalfird''. In

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, (), meaning '' Celestial Hook'', refers to an asterism consisting of η Cephei, 4 Cephei, HD 194298, θ Cephei, α Cephei,

ξ Cephei Xi Cephei (ξ Cephei, abbreviated Xi Cep, ξ Cep) is a multiple star system in the constellation of Cepheus. It is approximately 86 light-years from Earth. It consists of two binary stars, designated Xi Cephei A and B, together with a ...

, 26 Cephei, ι Cephei and ο Cephei. Consequently, the

Chinese name Chinese names or Chinese personal names are names used by individuals from Greater China and other parts of the Chinese-speaking world throughout East and Southeast Asia (ESEA). In addition, many names used in Japan, Korea and Vietnam are often a ...

for η Cephei itself is (, en, the Fourth Star of Celestial Hook.).
AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 7 月 6 日
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Properties

Eta Cephei is a

subgiant star A subgiant is a star that is brighter than a normal main-sequence star of the same spectral class, but not as bright as giant stars. The term subgiant is applied both to a particular spectral luminosity class and to a stage in the evolution of ...

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 grati ...

of K0 IV, which indicates it is exhausting the supply of hydrogen at its core and is in the process of

evolving Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation t ...

into a

giant star A giant star is a star with substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main sequence, main-sequence (or ''dwarf'') star of the same effective temperature, surface temperature.Giant star, entry in ''Astronomy Encyclopedia'', ed. Patrick Moo ...

. With 1.6 times the Sun's mass, at an age of 2.5 billion years it has reached a radius four times larger than the Sun and a luminosity ten times greater. It is radiating this energy from its outer atmosphere at an

effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...

of 4,950 K, giving it the orange-hued glow of a

K-type star 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 ...

. Eta Cephei has a high

proper motion Proper motion is the astrometric measure of the observed changes in the apparent places of stars or other celestial objects in the sky, as seen from the center of mass of the Solar System, compared to the abstract background of the more dista ...

across the

celestial sphere In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, ...

and a large

peculiar velocity Peculiar motion or peculiar velocity refers to the velocity of an object relative to a ''rest frame'' — usually a frame in which the average velocity of some objects is zero. Galactic astronomy In galactic astronomy, peculiar motion refers to ...

of .

Hunt for substellar objects

According to Nelson & Angel (1998), Eta Cephei would show two significant periodicities of 164 days and 10 years respectively, hinting at the possible presence of one or more jovian planets in orbit around the subgiant. The authors have set an upper limit of 0.64

Jupiter masses Jupiter mass, also called Jovian mass, is the unit of mass equal to the total mass of the planet Jupiter. This value may refer to the mass of the planet alone, or the mass of the entire Jovian system to include the moons of Jupiter. Jupiter is b ...

for the putative inner planet and 1.2

for the putative outer one. Also Campbell et al. (1988) inferred the existence of planetary objects or even

brown dwarfs Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most m ...

less massive than 16.3

. However, more recent studies have not yet confirmed the existence of any substellar companion around Eta Cephei.

McDonald Observatory McDonald Observatory is an astronomical observatory located near unincorporated community of Fort Davis in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States. The facility is located on Mount Locke in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, with additional facil ...

team has set limits to the presence of one or more planets with masses between 0.13 and 2.4

and average separations spanning between 0.05 and 5.2 AU.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eta Cephei Cephei, Eta Cepheus (constellation) Hypothetical planetary systems K-type subgiants Cephei, Eta Cephei, 03 102422 198149 Durchmusterung objects 7957