Beaver (star)

See also: Beaver

Castor (α Gem/α Geminorum/Geminorum alpha) are the second most brilliant star of the Constellation of the Gemini and one of the most brilliant stars of the night sky. Although it carries the Désignation from Bayer " alpha" , it is in fact weaker than Beta Geminorum (Pollux).

Beaver and Pollux are the stars " binoculars célestes" who give their name to the constellation of the Gemini (Gemini meaning " jumeaux" in Latin). Certain people think that the name Castor refers to the Castor , the animal. In fact the name Castor refers to Castor, one of twin wire of Zeus and Léda. The star also bears the Arab name Al-Short-nap cloth Al-Taum Al-Muqadim , which means " literally; The head of the first jumeau". The Chinese indicated Castor as being the Yin , which is, according to them, one of the two basic principles on of which all the things depend.

From an astronomical point of view, one discovered that Castor was a visual binary in 1678, the magnitude of his components being of 2,8 and 2,0. The separation of the components is of approximately 6" and the orbital period is approximately 350 years. Each component of Beaver is itself a spectroscopic Binaire, making Beaver a quadruple star system. Beaver has a weak distant partner of approximately 72" but having same the Parallax and own Movement; this partner is also binary spectroscopic of which the period is slightly lower than 1 day. Beaver can thus be regarded as a star system sextuples, made up of six stars bound gravitationally. The component C has the designation of variable star YY Geminorum. Relative data with the six stars which compose Castor:

Position

The position of star is shown on the chart of the constellation of the Gemini below:

External bonds

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