Atlas is a triple system, with a close binary at its heart and a much more distant third member that orbits the inner pair over a period of 260 years. The system shows variability characteristic of a pulsatingstar, with its magnitude changing across several overlapping periods ranging from eighteen hours to more than two days.
In Greek mythology, Atlas was a hero, the son of a Titan, who rebelled against the gods; his famous punishment was to bear the
heavens above the Earth. More relevant from an astronomical perspective, though, was the fact
that he fathered both the Hyades and the Pleiades. The
variablebluestar that
takes his name shares the constellation of Taurus
with the clusters named for his daughters, and indeed the
star Atlas belongs to the Pleiadescluster.
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