Gamma Cygni is a

star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

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 ...

of Cygnus, forming the intersection of an asterism of five stars called the Northern Cross. It is officially named Sadr , gamma Cygni is its

Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek alphabet, Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive case, genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer design ...

, which that is Latinized from γ Cygni, and abbreviated Gamma Cyg or γ Cyg. Based upon

parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different sightline, lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to perspective (graphica ...

measurements obtained during the

Hipparcos ''Hipparcos'' was a scientific satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. It was the first space experiment devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of the positions and distances of ...

mission, it is approximately 1,800

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s (560

parsec The parsec (symbol: pc) is a unit of length used to measure the large distances to astronomical objects outside the Solar System, approximately equal to or (AU), i.e. . The parsec unit is obtained by the use of parallax and trigonometry, and ...

s) from 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 ...

. It forms the primary or 'A' component of a

multiple star system A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravitational attraction. It may sometimes be used to refer to a single star. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally called a ''st ...

designated WDS J20222+4015 (the secondary or 'BCD' component is WDS J20222+4015BCD, a close triplet of stars 41" away from γ Cygni).

Nomenclature

''γ Cygni'' ( Latinised to ''Gamma Cygni'') is the star's

. WDS J20222+4015A is its designation in the

Washington Double Star Catalog The Washington Double Star Catalog, or WDS, is a catalog of double stars, maintained at the United States Naval Observatory. The catalog contains positions, magnitudes, proper motions and spectral types and has entries for (as of January 2024) 1 ...

. It bore the traditional name ''Sadr'' (also rendered ''Sadir'' or ''Sador''), derived from the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

صدر ''ṣadr'' "chest", the same word which gave rise to the star Schedar ( Alpha Cassiopeiae). In 2016, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

organized a

Working Group on Star Names The International Astronomical Union (IAU) established a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) in May 2016 to catalog and standardize proper names for stars for the international astronomical community. It operates under Division C – Education ...

(WGSN) to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN decided to attribute proper names to individual stars rather than entire multiple systems. It approved the name ''Sadr'' for this star (WDS J20222+4015A) on 21 August 2016 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names. In the catalogue of stars in the ''Calendarium'' of

Al Achsasi al Mouakket Muḥammad al Achsasi al Mouakket () was a 17th century Egyptian astronomer whose and catalogue of stars, ("''Pearls of brilliance upon the solar operations''"), was written in Cairo in about 1650. Al-Achsasi was a shaykh, a learned elder, of th ...

, this star was designated ''Sadr al Dedjadjet'', (صدر الدجاجة / ''ṣadr al-dajāja''), which was translated into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as ''Pectus Gallinǣ'', meaning ''the hen's chest''. In Chinese, (), meaning '' Celestial Ford'', refers to an asterism consisting of Gamma Cygni,

Delta Cygni Delta Cygni is a binary star of a combined third-magnitude in the constellation of Cygnus (constellation), Cygnus. It is also part of the Northern Cross (asterism), Northern Cross Asterism (astronomy), asterism whose brightest star is D ...

, 30 Cygni, Alpha Cygni,

Nu Cygni Nu Cygni, Latinized from ν Cygni, is a binary star system in the constellation Cygnus. Its apparent magnitude is 3.94 and it is approximately 374 light years away based on parallax. The brighter component is a magnitude 4.07 A-type g ...

, Tau Cygni,

Upsilon Cygni Upsilon Cygni is a star in the northern constellation of Cygnus. Its name is a Bayer designation that is Latinized from υ Cygni, and abbreviated Upsilon Cyg or υ Cyg. It is visible to the naked eye, having an apparent visual magnitude ...

, Zeta Cygni and Epsilon Cygni. Consequently, the

Chinese name Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethni ...

for Gamma Cygni itself is (, ).香港太空館 - 研究資源 - 亮星中英對照表
, Hong Kong Space Museum. Accessed on line November 23, 2010.

Properties

With an

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 2.23, Gamma Cygni is among the brighter stars visible in the night sky. The

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 this star is F8 Iab, indicating that it has reached the

supergiant Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, with absolute visual magnitudes between about −3 and −8. The temperatures of supergiant stars range ...

stage of its

stellar evolution Stellar evolution is the process by which a star changes over the course of time. Depending on the mass of the star, its lifetime can range from a few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive, which is consi ...

. Since 1943, the

spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. Compared to the Sun this is an enormous star, with 14.5 times the

Sun's mass The solar mass () is a frequently used unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies a ...

and about 180 times the

Sun's radius Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of objects in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3: 1\,R_ = 6.957\ti ...

. It is emitting over 33,000 times as much energy as the Sun, 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 5,790 K in its outer envelope. This temperature is what gives the star the characteristic yellow-white hue of an

F-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 ...

. Massive stars such as this consume their nuclear fuel much more rapidly than the Sun, so the estimated age of this star is only about 12 million years old. The

of this star shows some unusual dynamic features, including variations in

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 up to , occurring on a time scale of 100 days or more. Indeed, on the

Hertzsprung–Russell diagram The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (abbreviated as H–R diagram, HR diagram or HRD) is a scatter plot of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosities and their stellar classifications or effective temp ...

, Gamma Cygni lies close to the

instability strip The unqualified term instability strip usually refers to a region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram largely occupied by several related classes of pulsating variable stars: Delta Scuti variables, SX Phoenicis variables, and rapidly oscillat ...

and its spectrum is markedly like that of a

Cepheid variable A Cepheid variable () is a type of variable star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature. It changes in brightness, with a well-defined stable period (typically 1–100 days) and amplitude. Cepheids are important cosmi ...

. This star is surrounded by a diffuse nebula called IC 1318, or the ''Gamma Cygni region''.

References

External links

Sadr
by Jim Kaler. * http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/nebulae/ic1318.html

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, July 9, 2013 {{Stars of Cygnus Cygni, Gamma Cygnus (constellation) F-type supergiants Sadr Cygni, 37 7796 194093 100453 Durchmusterung objects Suspected variables