Delta Piscium Explained

Delta Piscium (δ Piscium) is a solitary, orange-hued star in the zodiac constellation of Pisces. It has an apparent visual magnitude of +4.4, so it is bright enough to be faintly visible to the naked eye. Based upon an annual parallax shift of 10.86 mas, it is around 300abbr=offNaNabbr=off from the Sun. The visual magnitude of the star is diminished by an interstellar absorption factor of 0.08 due to interstellar dust.

This is an evolved K-type giant star with a stellar classification of K4 IIIb. It has around 1.65 times the mass of the Sun and, at the age of three billion years, has expanded to 38 times the Sun's radius. The star is radiating 292 times the Sun's luminosity from its enlarged photosphere at an effective temperature of 3,868 K.

Because Delta Piscium is positioned near the ecliptic, so it is subject to lunar occultations. It has a magnitude 13.99 visual companion at an angular separation of 135.0 arc seconds on a position angle of 12°, as of 2011.

Naming

In Chinese, Chinese: 外屏 (Chinese: Wài Píng), meaning Outer Fence, refers to an asterism of stars, δ Piscium, ε Piscium, ζ Piscium, μ Piscium, ν Piscium, ξ Piscium and α Piscium. Consequently, the Chinese name for δ Piscium itself is Chinese: 外屏一 (Chinese: Wài Píng yī, English: the First Star of Outer Fence.)[1]

Notes and References

  1. AEEA (Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy) 天文教育資訊網 2006 年 5 月 19 日