Gam

Its story

Gamma Phoenicis is a red giant set in the heart of the mythical bird that rises from its own ashes. It belongs to a spectroscopic binary whose 194-day orbit produces faint pulses of brightness, like a slow respiration. Its coppery hue marks an aged star: the core hydrogen long spent, now burning in an outer shell while helium waits its turn in the silence at the centre.