It has the traditional star name Kae Uh, from the Chinese 蓋屋 (Mandarin pronunciation Gài Wū).[12] In Chinese astronomy, 蓋屋 is the rooftop, an asterism consisting of ο Aquarii and 32 Aquarii.[13] Consequently, the Chinese name for ο Aquarii itself is 蓋屋一 (Gài Wū yī, English: the First Star of Roofing.)[14]
The spectrum of Omicron Aquarii fits a stellar classification of B7 IVe;[4] the luminosity class of IV suggests that this is a subgiant star that is exhausting the supply of hydrogen at its core and is in the process of evolving into a giant star. The 'e' suffix on the class indicates that the spectrum shows emission lines of hydrogen, thus categorizing this as a Be star.
Omicron Aquarii has 4.2 times the mass of the Sun and four[7] times the Sun's radius. It is radiating 340[1] times the luminosity of the Sun from its photosphere at an effective temperature of 11,145 K.[9] This is classified as a Gamma Cassiopeiae type[5] variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.68 down to +4.89.[16] It is likely a single star, with no stellar companions.[17]
This star is spinning rapidly with an equatorial rotational velocity of 368 km/s, which is ~96% of the star's critical rotation velocity of 391 km/s.[7] This is creating an equatorial bulge with a radius of 6.8±1.0 R☉ compared to a polar radius of 6.0±0.8 R☉. As a result, the polar temperature 11,500±578 K; higher than the equator.[9]
The emission lines are being generated by a circumstellar disk of hot hydrogen gas.[18] This disk has been globally stable for at least twenty years, as of 2020.[7] It is inclined at an angle of 75°±3° to the plane of the sky. 90% of the hydrogen emission comes from within 9.5 stellar radii of the host star, and the disk has an estimated mass of ∼1.8×10−10 of the star's mass.[19]
↑ 6.06.1Wielen, R. et al. (1999), "Sixth Catalogue of Fundamental Stars (FK6). Part I. Basic fundamental stars with direct solutions", Veroeffentlichungen des Astronomischen Rechen-Instituts Heidelberg (Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg) 35 (35): 1, Bibcode: 1999VeARI..35....1W.
↑Curtis, Jason L. et al. (August 2019), "TESS Reveals that the Nearby Pisces-Eridanus Stellar Stream is only 120 Myr Old", The Astronomical Journal158 (2): 11, doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab2899, 77, Bibcode: 2019AJ....158...77C.
↑Hutter, D. J. et al. (2021), "Surveying the Bright Stars by Optical Interferometry. III. A Magnitude-limited Multiplicity Survey of Classical Be Stars", The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series257 (2): 69, doi:10.3847/1538-4365/ac23cb, Bibcode: 2021ApJS..257...69H.
↑Meilland, A. et al. (February 2012), "First spectro-interferometric survey of Be stars. I. Observations and constraints on the disk geometry and kinematics", Astronomy & Astrophysics538: A110, doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117955, Bibcode: 2012A&A...538A.110M.
↑Sigut, T. A. A. et al. (December 2015), "The Circumstellar Disk of the Be Star o Aquarii as Constrained by Simultaneous Spectroscopy and Optical Interferometry", The Astrophysical Journal814 (2): id. 159, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/814/2/159, Bibcode: 2015ApJ...814..159S.