astronomy

UV Piscium

UV Piscium is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand UV Piscium rather than just read about it. In short: UV Piscium is a binary star system in the constellation of Pisces. With a peak apparent visual magnitude of 8.98, it is too faint to be visible to the naked eye.

Key takeaways

UV Piscium belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect UV Piscium to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of UV Piscium from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

UV Piscium is a binary star system in the constellation of Pisces. With a peak apparent visual magnitude of 8.98, it is too faint to be visible to the naked eye. This is an eclipsing binary system that decreases to magnitude 10.05 during the primary eclipse, then to magnitude 9.54 with the secondary eclipse. It is located at a distance of 232 light years from the Sun based on parallax measurements, and is receding with a radial velocity of 6.5 km/s. The position of this star near the ecliptic means it is subject to lunar occultation. This star was found to be variable by H. Huth in 1959. He determined it to be an eclipsing binary and published the first light curve with a period of 20.67 hours. R. B. Carr in 1969 proposed this to be an Algol-type variable with a minor tidal distortion of the components, plus a large, anomalous asymmetry in the light curve. D. S. Hall in 1976 grouped it among the class of short-period RS CVn binaries. The following year, variable, non-thermal radio emission was detected coming from this system, the first such discovered for a short-period binary. Daniel M. Popper in 1969 found a double-lined, G-type spectrum with both components showing emission in the H and K lines. In 1979, A. R. Sadik deduced the system is a detached binary and suggested a bright, hot spot may produce the observed asymmetry in the light curve. He found stellar classifications of G2V and K0IV for the primary and secondary components, respectively. With improved spectra, Popper found main sequence classes of G5 and K3 for the two stars. The presence of a prominence was deduced in 1992, and a flare of hydrogen alpha was observed the following year. This is a close binary system with an orbital period of 0.86 days. The orbit is circular and the components are spinning rapidly in-sync with their orbital period. This rotation rate is making both stars magnetically active, with average magnetic field strengths of 137 G and 88 G for the primary and secondary, respectively. Magnetic activity cycles appear to be causing the orbital period to oscillate with a 61 year period. The primary is a G-type main-sequence star of about the same size and mass as the Sun, while the secondary is a smaller K-type main-sequence star. They are estimated to be about 4.6 billion years old.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with UV Piscium

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what UV Piscium claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to UV Piscium before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about UV Piscium ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of UV Piscium

In research: UV Piscium appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses UV Piscium in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: UV Piscium is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Algol variables, Durchmusterung objects, G-type main-sequence stars, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for UV Piscium outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “UV Piscium” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study UV Piscium in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what UV Piscium means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain UV Piscium out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is UV Piscium in simple terms?

UV Piscium is a binary star system in the constellation of Pisces. With a peak apparent visual magnitude of 8.98, it is too faint to be visible to the naked eye.

Why does UV Piscium matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study UV Piscium?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on UV Piscium.