Gamma Piscium


Gamma Piscium is a star approximately 138 light years away from Earth, in the zodiac constellation of Pisces. It is a yellow star with a spectral type of G8 III, meaning it has a surface temperature of 4,833 K and is a giant star. It is slightly cooler than the Sun, yet it is 11 solar radii in size and shines with the light of 63 Suns. At an apparent magnitude of 3.7, it is the second brightest star in the constellation Pisces, between Eta and Alpha. Once a white A2 star, it is 5.5 billion years old.
Gamma Piscium moves across the sky at three-quarters of an arcsecond per year, which at 138 light years corresponds to 153 kilometers per second. This suggests it is a visitor from another part of the Milky Way Galaxy; in astronomical terms, it will quickly leave the vicinity of the Sun. Its metallicity is only one-fourth that of the Sun, and visitors from outside the thin disk that composes the Milky Way tend to be metal-poor. Gamma Piscium lies inside an asterism known as the "circlet of Pisces."

Naming

In Chinese, 霹靂, meaning Thunderbolt, refers to an asterism consisting of γ Piscium, β Piscium, θ Piscium, ι Piscium and ω Piscium. Consequently, the Chinese name for γ Piscium itself is 霹靂二

In fiction

In Frank Herbert's Dune series, Gamma Waiping is the home system of Imperial House Corrino.