An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

The brightest star in the constellation → Gemini despite its designation as β. Also known as HR 2990 and HD 62509. Pollux lies about 4 degrees apart from the blue star → Castor with which it has no physical connection. Pollux is an orange-red star with a → visual magnitude 1.14 (B - V = +1.00) located about 34 → light-years away. It is a → giant star of → spectral type K0 III, with a mass of 2 Msun, a radius of about 10Rsun, a luminosity of 43 Lsun, and an → effective temperature of 4666 K. Pollux has a large planet, → Pollux b, with a mass of at least 2.3 times the mass of Jupiter.

Pollux, Gk. Polydeucus is one of the "Heavenly Twins," brother to → Castor, sons of Leda and Zeus.

Pollux, loan from L., as above. It has a too long Ar. name: Al-Ra's-at-Tau'am-al-Mo'akhkhar (الرأس‌التوأم‌المؤخر) "the head of the posterior twin," translating the Gk. mythological figure.

An → extrasolar planet orbiting the bright star → Pollux (β Gem). It lies approximately 34 → light-years away in the constellation → Gemini. Called also → Thestias, it has a mass of at least 2.30 → Jupiter mass, and orbits Pollux at a distance of about 1.64 → astronomical units once every 590 days.

→ Pollux.