(center star) and surroundings. Image by Jeff Johnson. With an
apparent visual magnitude of 2.23, Gamma Cygni is among the brighter stars visible in the night sky. The
stellar classification of this star is F8 Iab, indicating that it has reached the
supergiant stage of its
stellar evolution. Since 1943, the
spectrum 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 and about 180 times the
Sun's radius. It is emitting over 33,000 times as much energy as the Sun, at an
effective 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. 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
spectrum of this star shows some unusual dynamic features, including variations in
radial velocity of up to , occurring on a time scale of 100 days or more. Indeed, on the
Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, Gamma Cygni lies close to the
instability strip and its spectrum is markedly like that of a
Cepheid variable. This star is surrounded by a diffuse nebula called
IC 1318, or the
Gamma Cygni region. ==References==