Gamma Aquilae is a relatively young star with an age of about 100 million years. Nevertheless, it has reached a stage of its evolution where it has consumed the hydrogen at its core and expanded into what is termed a bright giant star, with a stellar classification of K3 II. The star is now burning helium into carbon in its core. After it has finished generating energy through nuclear fusion, Gamma Aquilae will become a white dwarf. The interferometry-measured angular diameter of Gamma Aquilae is mas, which, at its estimated distance, equates to a physical radius of about 95 times the radius of the Sun. With almost six times the Sun's mass, this is an enormous star that is radiating over times the luminosity of the Sun. An effective temperature of in its outer envelope gives it the orange hue typical of K-type stars. A 1991 catalogue of photometry reported that Gamma Aquilae showed some variation in its brightness, but this has not been confirmed.
Nomenclature
γ Aquilae is the star's Bayer designation. It bore the traditional name Tarazed, which may derive from the Persian شاهين ترازو šāhin tarāzu "the beam of the scale", referring to an asterism of the Scale, Alpha, Beta and Gamma Aquilae. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Tarazed for this star on 21 August 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. In the catalogue of stars in the Calendarium of Al Achsasi Al Mouakket, this star was designated Menkib al Nesr, which was translated into Latin as Humerus Vulturis, meaning 'the eagle's shoulder'. In Chinese, 河鼓, meaning River Drum, refers to an asterism consisting of Gamma Aquilae, Beta Aquilae and Altair. Consequently, the Chinese name for Gamma Aquilae itself is 河鼓三 In Chinese mythology, The Princess and the Cowherd, this star and Beta Aquilae, are children of Niulang and Zhinü. The Koori people of Victoria knew Beta and Gamma Aquilae as the black swan wives of Bunjil, the wedge-tailed eagle.
