Pollux size and scale context

Pollux is the brightest star in Gemini and the nearest giant star to the Sun. It has already left the main sequence and swelled into an orange giant, making it a useful nearby preview of what a Sun-like star looks like after exhausting core hydrogen. Read its scale context, comparisons, and journey links on the canonical object page.

Procyon AF-type subgiant star·2.84 million km

Spica AB-type giant star·10.4 million km

PolluxK-type orange giant star·12.5 million km

ArcturusK-type orange giant star·35 million km

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Stars

Spica A

Spica A is the hot blue primary in the Spica binary and a Beta Cephei variable near the end of its main-sequence life. Its rapid rotation and close companion distort the star into an ellipsoidal shape, so the system appears to breathe and shimmer even though the stars remain unresolved to the naked eye.

Scale fact10.4 million kmdiameter

Object class: B-type giant star
Mass: ~11.4 solar masses
Host: Spica system
Estimated age: ~12.5 million years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium
Temperature: ~25,300 K surface

Stars

Pollux

Scale fact12.5 million kmdiameter

Object class: K-type orange giant star
Mass: ~1.9 solar masses
Temperature: ~4,810 K surface
Estimated age: ~0.9–1.7 billion years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium

Stars

Arcturus

Arcturus is a bright orange giant and the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere. It also races unusually fast across the sky for such a bright star, shifting by about two arcseconds per year because of its high motion relative to the Sun.

Scale fact35 million kmdiameter

Object class: K-type orange giant star
Mass: ~1.1 solar masses
Temperature: ~4,300 K surface
Estimated age: ~7.1 billion years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium