Eta Pegasi
star

Eta Pegasi or η Pegasi, formally named Matar , is a binary star in the constellation of Pegasus. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +2.95, making it the fifth-brightest member of Pegasus. Based upon parallax measurements, the distance to this star is about 214 light-years (66 parsecs) from the Sun.
Nomenclature
η Pegasi (Latinised to Eta Pegasi) is the star's Bayer designation.
It bore the traditional name Matar, derived from the Arabic سعد المطر Saʽd al Maṭar, meaning lucky star of rain. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Matar for η Pegasi A on 21 August 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names.
In Chinese, 離宮 (Lì Gōng), meaning Resting Palace, refers to an asterism consisting η Pegasi, λ Pegasi, μ Pegasi, ο Pegasi, τ Pegasi and ν Pegasi. Consequently, η Pegasi itself is known as 離宮四 (Lì Gōng sì), "the Fourth Star of Resting Palace".
Namesake
USS Matar (AK-119) was a United States Navy Crater class cargo ship named after the star.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Eta Pegasi” is star. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pegasi and star, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1417104. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2016.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eta Pegasi” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.