Gamma Ursae Majoris (γ UMa, γ Ursae Majoris) is a star

Star

A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

 in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Ursa Major

Ursa Major

Ursa Major , also known as the Great Bear, is a constellation visible throughout the year in most of the northern hemisphere. It can best be seen in April...

. It has the traditional name Phad, or Phecda, from the Arabic phrase فخذ الدب "fakhð ad-dubb" ("thigh of the bear").

It is more familiar to most observers in the northern hemisphere

Northern Hemisphere

The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of its equator—the word hemisphere literally means “half sphere”. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...

 as the lower-left star forming the bowl of the Big Dipper

Big Dipper

The Plough, also known as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi , is an asterism of seven stars that has been recognized as a distinct grouping in many cultures from time immemorial...

, together with Dubhe (upper-right), Merak

Beta Ursae Majoris

Beta Ursae Majoris is a star in the constellation of Ursa Major. It has the traditional name Merak.It is more familiar to northern hemisphere observers as one of the "pointer stars" in the Big Dipper, and a straight line connecting it with nearby Alpha Ursae Majoris extends to Polaris, the north...

 (lower-right) and Megrez

Delta Ursae Majoris

Delta Ursae Majoris is a star in the constellation Ursa Major. It has the traditional names Megrez , from the al-maghriz "the base [of the bear's tail]", and Kaffa....

 (upper-left). Along with four other stars in this well-known asterism

Asterism (astronomy)

In astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars recognized on Earth's night sky. It may form part of an official constellation, or be composed of stars from more than one. Like constellations, asterisms are in most cases composed of stars which, while they are visible in the same general direction,...

, Phecda forms an actual loose, open cluster

Open cluster

An open cluster is a group of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way Galaxy, and many more are thought to exist...

 of stars known as the Ursa Major moving group

Ursa Major Moving Group

The Ursa Major Moving Group, also known as Collinder 285 or Ursa Major association, is a nearby stellar moving group, a set of stars with common velocities in space and thought to have a common origin. Its core is located roughly 80 light years away...

. Like the other stars in the cluster, it is an average main sequence

Main sequence

The main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Hertzsprung and Henry Norris Russell...

 star not unlike our Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...

, although somewhat hotter, brighter and larger.

See also

• Gamma Ursae Majoris in fiction