BD Phoenicis

BD Phoenicis is a variable star in the constellation of Phoenix. From parallax measurements by the Gaia spacecraft, it is located at a distance of 256 ly from Earth. Its absolute magnitude is calculated at 1.5.

Description
BD Phoenicis is a Lambda Boötis star, an uncommon type of peculiar stars that have very low abundances of iron-peak elements. In particular, BD Phoenicis has near-solar carbon and oxygen content, but its iron abundance is only 4% of the solar value. BD Phoenicis is also a pulsating variable of Delta Scuti type, varying its apparent magnitude between 5.90 and 5.94. A study of its light curve detected seven pulsation periods that range from 50 to 84 minutes, the strongest one having a period of 57 minutes and an amplitude of 9 milli-magnitudes. Pulsations are common among Lambda Boötis stars and seem to be more common than on normal main sequence stars of the same spectral type.

BD Phoenicis is an A-type main-sequence star with a spectral type of A1Va. Stellar evolution models indicate it has about double the solar mass and an age of about 800 million years, having completed 83% of its main sequence lifetime. It is radiating 21 times the Sun's luminosity from its photosphere at an effective temperature of $$. BD Phoenicis has a composite spectra that indicate it is a binary star, but nothing is known about the companion.

Observations by the Herschel Space Observatory have detected an infrared excess from BD Phoenicis, indicating that there is a debris disk in the system. By modeling the emission as a black body, it is estimated that the dust has a temperature of $7,800 K$ and is at a distance of $55 K$ from the star. The existence of debris disks is possibly related to the Lambda Boötis phenomenon.