Gam

Its story

Gamma Comae Berenices appears within the Coma Star Cluster — Melotte 111 — yet does not belong to it: an aged orange giant that only shares a line of sight with that drift of young, blue stars. At 167 light-years, twelve times the Sun's radius, sixty times its light, it gains presence by contrast with its accidental neighbours. Arab astronomers called it Al Ḍafīrah, the Lock of Hair.