Pollux

system

Pollux is the brighter of Gemini's twin stars and the nearest giant star to the Sun with a confirmed planet, 33.8 light-years away. An orange giant about nine times the Sun's width, it has swollen and cooled at the end of its life. Its planet, Pollux b (Thestias), is a super-Jupiter found from the star's slow wobble.

Open in 3D viewSee Pollux in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Type

Orange giant + 1 planet

Distance

33.8 light-years

Confirmed planets

Brightness

V 1.14 — a Gemini twin

Science

Classification

Type: Single orange-giant system
Central star: Pollux — K0III orange giant (~4893 K, ~9 R☉)

Planets

Confirmed planets: 1 · Pollux b (Thestias), a super-Jupiter
Mass: Minimum mass ≥ ~2.3 Jupiter (radial velocity)

Distance

Distance: 33.8 light-years · the nearest giant star with a planet

How we know

Note: One confirmed planet (NASA Exoplanet Archive, checked 2026-07-05), found by radial velocity, so its mass is a minimum and its size is not measured. Distance on the map is symbolic; the real gap is 33.8 light-years.

Discovery & history

Method: Naked-eye star
Name: Its IAU name Pollux is a mythological Gemini twin; Beta Geminorum.

Known since antiquity as a Gemini twin; its giant planet was found in 2006 from a decades-long radial-velocity wobble.

Images

Where to find it — in Gemini, the Twins (IAU constellation chart). To the eye it is a single point of light; no telescope has imaged its surface. — IAU / Sky & Telescope, R. Sinnott & R. Fienberg (CC BY 3.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Images from open archives · credit shown per image