Pollux (star)Pollux is the brightest star in the constellation of Gemini. It has the Bayer designationβ Geminorum, which is Latinised to Beta Geminorum and abbreviated Beta Gem or β Gem. This is an orange-hued red giant located at a distance of 34 light-years, making it the closest red giant (and giant star) to the Sun. Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified.
Artie P. HatzesArtie P. Hatzes (born May 24, 1957 in Havre de Grace, Maryland) is an American astronomer. He was a professor at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena and director of the Karl Schwarzschild Observatory (Thuringian State Observatory) from 2000 to 2023. Hatzes is a pioneer in the search of extrasolar planets and is working on the CoRoT space mission. His achievements have included discovering the extrasolar planets Pollux b, Epsilon Eridani b and HD 13189 companion.
Stellar magnetic fieldA stellar magnetic field is a magnetic field generated by the motion of conductive plasma inside a star. This motion is created through convection, which is a form of energy transport involving the physical movement of material. A localized magnetic field exerts a force on the plasma, effectively increasing the pressure without a comparable gain in density.
ExoplanetAn exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detected in 1988, was confirmed in 2003. In 2016, it was recognized that the first possible evidence of an exoplanet had been noted in 1917, a precovery.
Minimum massIn astronomy, minimum mass is the lower-bound calculated mass of observed objects such as planets, stars, binary systems, nebulae, and black holes. Minimum mass is a widely cited statistic for extrasolar planets detected by the radial velocity method or Doppler spectroscopy, and is determined using the binary mass function.
Latinisation of namesLatinisation (or Latinization) of names is the practice of changing certain non-Latin names into a form that more closely fits the style, structure, and rules of Latin. The practice is found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in the standard binomial nomenclature of the life sciences.
ConstellationA constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellations were likely defined in prehistory. People used them to relate stories of their beliefs, experiences, creation, and mythology.
StarLarge self-illuminated object in spaceThe Sun, a G-type main-sequence star, the closest to EarthA star-forming region in the Large Magellanic CloudA star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixedpoints of light.
Gemini (constellation)Gemini is one of the constellations of the zodiac and is located in the northern celestial hemisphere. It was one of the 48 constellations described by the 2nd century AD astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. Its name is Latin for twins, and it is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology. Its old astronomical symbol is (♊︎).
Light-yearA light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly 9460730472580.8 km, which is approximately 9.46 trillion kilometres or 5.88 trillion miles. As defined by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a light-year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one Julian year (365.25 days). Despite its inclusion of the word "year", the term is a unit of distance, not a unit of time.
Astronomical unitThe astronomical unit (symbol: au or AU) is a unit of length defined as 149597870700 m. Historically, the astronomical unit was conceived as the average Earth-Sun distance (the average of Earth's aphelion and perihelion), before its modern redefinition in 2012. The astronomical unit is used primarily for measuring distances within the Solar System or around other stars. It is also a fundamental component in the definition of another unit of astronomical length, the parsec.
TwinOne of two offspring produced by the same pregnancyIdentical twins can be difficult to visually distinguish especially when young, as demonstrated by brothers Billy and Bobby Mauch.Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.
Doppler spectroscopyDoppler spectroscopy (also known as the radial-velocity method, or colloquially, the wobble method) is an indirect method for detectingextrasolar planets and brown dwarfs from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the planet's parent star. As of January 2026, over 1,100 known extrasolar planets (about 19.0% of the total) have been discovered using Doppler spectroscopy.*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.