Gam

Its story

Gamma Coronae Borealis is a binary star that pulses softly in the diadem of the Northern Crown, about 146 light-years away. It throbs to an extraordinarily brief rhythm —barely 43 minutes per cycle— and was the earliest known Delta Scuti variable with such an early spectral type. Its behaviour is so peculiar that it gave its name to a separate class of variables, the Maia stars, where physical models have yet to fully identify what engine sustains the heartbeat.