Astronomy

Nu Piscium – an Orange-hued Binary Star System

Nu Piscium – an Orange-hued Binary Star System

Nu Piscium (v Piscium) is an orange binary star system in the Pisces zodiac constellation. It is a massive star in the Pisces constellation. It is 362.92 light-years away from Earth and is located in the constellation Pisces. It was designated 51 Ceti in the Cetus constellation prior to the formation of the modern constellation boundaries in 1930. Because it is close to the celestial equator, it is visible from both hemispheres at different times of the year. It is a yellow-orange star that is classified as very cool.

Nu Piscium can be seen with the naked eye, with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.44. The giant star’s position in the night sky is determined by the Right Ascension (R.A.) and Declination (Dec.), which are equivalent to Longitude and Latitude on Earth. It is approximately 363 light-years from the Sun, based on an annual parallax shift of 8.98 mas as seen from Earth. The estimated radius of Nu Piscium is 24.93 times greater than that of the Sun. The radius of the Sun is 695,800km, so the radius of the star is estimated to be 17,345,566.25km.

The visual magnitude of Nu Piscium is 4.44. Nu Piscium, due to its moderate brightness, should be easily visible from locations with dark skies, but it may be barely visible, or not visible at all, from light-polluted skies. Nu Piscium’s color and type are orange to red giant stars based on the star’s spectral type of K2/3 III. Based on the spectral type, we can deduce that the star’s surface temperature is in the range of 3,500 to 5,000K, according to Harvard University’s notes.

Component A is an evolved K-type giant star with the stellar classification K3 IIIb. It is a weak barium star, implying that the atmosphere was previously enriched by s-process element accretion from what is now a white dwarf companion. Nu Piscium’s apparent magnitude is 4.45, which is a measure of the star’s brightness as seen from Earth. Visual Magnitude is another name for Apparent Magnitude. Nu Piscium’s absolute magnitude is -0.81 if you use the 1997 Parallax value. Nu Piscium’s absolute magnitude is -0.78 if you use the 2007 Parallax value.

The giant has 1.66 times the mass of the Sun and has expanded to approximately 34 times the radius of the Sun. It is approximately 3.4 billion years old and emits 380 times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 4,154 K. Nu Piscium’s apparent magnitude is 4.45, which is a measure of the star’s brightness as seen from Earth. Visual Magnitude is another name for Apparent Magnitude. Nu Piscium’s absolute magnitude is -0.81 if you use the 1997 Parallax value. Nu Piscium’s absolute magnitude is -0.78 if you use the 2007 Parallax value.