The Geminid meteor shower springs out of this constellation in mid-December every year, from a point near the star Castor. A much more distant star cluster, NGC 2158, appears at the edge of M35. It contains over 400 stars and covers an area of the sky equivalent to the full moon.Īlthough M35 is visible to the unaided eye as a fuzzy smudge, binoculars or a small telescope are needed to show its twinkling stars. M35 is estimated to be 175-million years old - fairly young for a star cluster. The beautiful star cluster at the twins’ feet is called Messier 35, or M35 for short. This planet, formally named Thestius, is more than twice the size of our solar system’s largest world, Jupiter. Recent studies, however, show that Pollux has at least one large planet orbiting around it. Pollux is a little closer to us, at 33 light years, and has no known stellar companions. Castor is a fine example of a binary star, two stars that appear as one to the naked eye.Įach of these stars is again double and are circled by yet a third pair of faint stars, making Castor a rare sextuple star system, about 51 light years from Earth. That’s how I remember which one is which.Īim a medium-sized telescope at Castor and you might think that you are seeing double. Zeus heard the plea and immortalized both brothers in the sky, side by side forever, as our constellation of Gemini, the Twins.Ĭlose inspection reveals that the star Pollux, representing the immortal twin, is slightly brighter than Castor, the mortal twin. When Castor was mortally wounded in battle, Pollux pleaded with Zeus to grant his brother immortality, too, that he should not die. Elmo’s fire, as it is now known, is caused by a static electrical build up on a pointy object, like a mast, during a thunderstorm. The Gemini twins were thought to bring good luck to sailors, sometimes appearing as a bright blue glow atop the ship’s mast. Pollux and Castor shared many adventures in Greek mythology, even sailing with Jason and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. The two brothers were also very close to their two sisters, Helen (of Troy) and Clytemnestra. Thus, Pollux was immortal like his father, but his brother Castor was a mere mortal.Īlthough they weren’t conjoined twins, they were inseparable, nonetheless. The ancient Greeks called them the Dioscuri, or sons of Zeus, although only one of the mythological twins was said to be fathered by the king of the gods.Ĭastor’s father was Leda’s actual husband, Tyndareus, while Pollux’s father was Zeus. Pollux and Castor were fraternal twins born to Leda.
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