Gamma Pegasi is the star's Bayer designation. Although it also had the traditional name Algenib, this name was also used for Alpha Persei. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN)[16] to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016[17] included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included Algenib for this star (Alpha Persei was given the name Mirfak).
The asterism of γ Pegasi and α Andromedae, in Hindu astronomy, is called Uttara Bhādrapadā (उत्तरभाद्रपदा) or Uttṛṭṭāti. It is the 26th nakshatra. In Chinese, 壁宿 (Bìxiù), meaning Wall (asterism) refers to an asterism consisting of γ Pegasi and α Andromedae .[18] Consequently, the Chinese name for γ Pegasi itself is 壁宿一 (Bìxiù yī, English: the First Star of Wall.)[19]
In 1911, American astronomer Keivin Burns discovered that the radial velocity of Gamma Pegasi varied slightly. This was confirmed in 1953 by American astronomer D. Harold McNamara, who identified it as a Beta Cephei variable.[5] (At the time he actually identified it as a Beta Canis Majoris star, which was subsequently designated a Beta Cephei variable.)[21] It has a radial pulsation period of 0.15175 days (3.642 hours), but also shows the behavior of a slowly pulsating B star (SPB) with three additional pulsational frequencies.[5] Hence it is considered a hybrid pulsator.[22] Its magnitude varies between +2.78 and +2.89 over the course of each pulsation cycle.[2]
^ abcCrawford, D. L.; Barnes, J. V.; Golson, J. C. (1971), "Four-color, H-beta, and UBV photometry for bright B-type stars in the northern hemisphere", The Astronomical Journal, 76: 1058, Bibcode:1971AJ.....76.1058C, doi:10.1086/111220
^Gies, Douglas R.; Lambert, David L. (March 10, 1992), "Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances in early B-type stars", Astrophysical Journal, Part 1, 387: 673–700, Bibcode:1992ApJ...387..673G, doi:10.1086/171116
^ abAbt, Helmut A.; Levato, Hugo; Grosso, Monica (July 2002), "Rotational Velocities of B Stars", The Astrophysical Journal, 573 (1): 359–365, Bibcode:2002ApJ...573..359A, doi:10.1086/340590. The zero value is for v sin i, so v and/or i must be small.
^Kunitzsch, Paul; Smart, Tim (2006). A Dictionary of Modern star Names: A Short Guide to 254 Star Names and Their Derivations (2nd rev. ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Sky Pub. ISBN978-1-931559-44-7.
^McNamara, D. H. (June 1953), "Gamma Pegasi: A Beta Canis Majoris Star of Small Velocity Amplitude", Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 65 (384): 144, Bibcode:1953PASP...65..144M, doi:10.1086/126561
^Handler, G.; et al. (June 2009), "Asteroseismology of Hybrid Pulsators Made Possible: Simultaneous MOST Space Photometry and Ground-Based Spectroscopy of γ Peg", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 698 (1): L56–L59, arXiv:0905.1193, Bibcode:2009ApJ...698L..56H, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/698/1/L56
^Butkovskaya V.V., Plachinda S.I. (2007). "A study of the β Cephei star γ Pegasi: binarity, magnetic field, rotation, and pulsations". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 469 (3 Jul): 1069–1076. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20065563. We have detected the presence of a weak magnetic field on the star. The longitudinal component of the field varies from -10 G to 30 G with the stellar rotation. The most probable rotational period is P_rot = 6.6538 ± 0.0016 days. Both the orbital and the rotational periods are integral multiples of the difference between them: P_orb/|P_orb - P_rot| = 42.002, and P_rot/|P_orb - P_rot| = 41.002. Variation in the longitudinal magnetic field during the pulsation period with an amplitude about 7 G was detected.