Stars have long attracted humanity with their beauty, mystery and mystery. In the religions of different nations, they were given special significance, believing that their location could influence a person’s fate; heroes of myths and legends also found refuge in the starry sky. One of the most famous constellations in the night sky is Orion - a beautiful constellation that is located south of the equator, in the southern part of the sky. The ancient Egyptians gave it the name “king of the stars”, and considered the constellation the home of the god Osiris. It is easy to recognize by its asterism. Orion's belt is three bright stars, which, as if being on the same straight line, adorn the clothes of the giant hunter.
The legend that is reflected in the night sky is contradictory. According to one version, Orion, a brave hunter, pursued the Pleiades sisters. To stop him, she sent Scorpio, who inflicted a fatal bite on the hunter. After his death, Orion was placed in heaven by his father Poseidon. According to another version, Orion chases the Hare with his hunting Canis Major, and this episode is captured in the drawing of the stars. This is the legend describing Orion's belt, confirmation of which can be seen in the outlines of the constellation.
It is one of the most noticeable in the night sky, due to the fact that it combines many bright stars. Five of them are stars of the second magnitude, four are of the third magnitude, and two are of the first magnitude (the blue-white Rigel and the red Betelgeuse). Both Rigel and Betelgeuse are supergiants. Rigel is thirty-three times larger in diameter than our sun. It is located at a distance of more than five hundred light years from us, and the light of the star that we see now was emitted by it back at the time when Columbus discovered America.
Another bright star included in Orion’s belt is Betelgeuse, whose name is translated from ancient Arabic as “giant’s shoulder.” This star is four hundred times larger in diameter than the sun. There is a star near Rigel that appears cloudy and blurry. Around it you can see a foggy spot through a telescope. It is a cloud of glowing gas. It could make ten thousand stars, just like our sun. The nebula is located at a distance of one thousand three hundred light years. There is another nebula in the constellation Orion. It is called “Horse Head” because the gas and dust cloud is similar in outline to the head of a stallion.
It’s not for nothing that the constellation Orion’s Belt is considered the most beautiful in the starry sky. As Orion rises above the horizon, seven bright stars can be seen forming a hexagon. These are Pollux, Capella, Sirius, Procyon, Aldebaran and Rigel. Bright Betelgeuse stands out in the middle of the constellation. seen in the outlines of the stars the hunter Orion armed with a club. The three bright stars included in Orion's belt have Arabic names. These are Alnilam - “pearl belt”, Mintaka - “belt” and Alnitak - “sash”. The constellation Orion is also notable for the fact that below and to the right there is an area in which there are no bright stars, and it is the opposite of the bright belt of Orion. Here are the constellations whose names are associated with water: the Eridanus River and Aquarius.
The best time when Orion's belt is especially visible in the sky is the winter months - December and January. You can observe the constellation throughout Russia.
The belt in the constellation Orion includes three stars. This constellation is located on the equator and is visible throughout Russia.
Stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka
In ancient times, not only travelers, but also ancient temples in ancient civilizations were guided by these stars, and the pyramids on the Giza plateau to this day are a copy of the location of the celestial bodies on Earth.
The lowest star, of the three, is the star, translated from Arabic means “cloth belt” or “sash”. It is the first brightest class O star, located at a distance of 825 light years from Earth. Alnitak is a blue supergiant and is a triple star system. The mass of the main star Alnitak A is 28 solar, and the radius is 20 times greater than that of the Sun. This blue giant has a spectral class of O9.7 and a surface temperature of 33,500 Kelvin. The two blue satellites of the main star have brightnesses of 4 and 10, respectively. The luminosity of Alnikak is 35 thousand times higher than our Sun. The companion of the main star Alnitak B is classified as class O9.5. It circles Alnitak A every 1510 years. Alnitak B also has a satellite. Recently (in 1998) Alnitak C, 10th magnitude, was also discovered.
Alnilam star, image from the DSS catalog
"The constellation of Orion in general and in particular - the brightest stars, the Belt of Orion, the Cloud of Orion, the Orion and Horsehead nebulae, etc. miracles."
Orion is the name of a hunter from ancient Greek mythology. Nowadays, this is one of the most famous constellations in the earth's sky, one of the largest, noticeable and recognizable. The huge stars of Orion are located on the celestial equator and are therefore visible in both hemispheres.
Late in the evening, you will definitely notice three fairly bright stars in the southern sky. They lined up in a straight line inclined towards the horizon. This is not the entire constellation, but only the “belt” of the most beautiful winter constellation Orion. The entire constellation is much larger. Its eight brightest stars form a figure that, to some astronomy lovers, resembles a large, beautiful bow. But the ancient people saw in the outline of these stars not a bow, but a hunter armed to the teeth. He raised his club (club) high above his head and put his shield forward, and from his belt - those same three stars - he had a quiver of arrows hanging from him. The names of the brightest stars in this constellation - Betelgeuse, which in ancient Arabic means “shoulder of a giant”, and Rigel - “leg” - people came up with a long time ago.
Orion (Greek: Ὠρίων) is an equatorial constellation. In this constellation there are two stars of zero magnitude, 5 stars of second and 4 of third magnitude, and among the brightest stars there are variables. The constellation can be easily identified by three blue-white stars representing Orion's belt - Mintaka (δ Orionis), which in Arabic means "belt", Alnilam (ε Orionis) - "pearl belt" and Alnitak (ζ Orionis) - "sash". They are spaced from each other at the same angular distance and are located in a line pointing with the southeastern end to the blue Sirius (in Canis Major), and with the northwestern end to the red Aldebaran (in Taurus). The brightest stars are Rigel, Betelgeuse and Bellatrix. The Great Nebula of Orion, visible to the naked eye, is located in Orion. The constellation contains many hot stars of early spectral types O and B, which form a stellar association.
There are many interesting legends about Orion. In each of them, he accomplishes a feat, suffers and dies from insidious enemies. The legends of the ancient Greeks tell, for example, how Orion hunted wild animals that continually attacked the inhabitants of the island of Chios. The king of this island promised to give Orion his daughter, the beautiful Merope, as a wife; if the hunter destroys all the terrible animals. Orion did this, but he was cruelly deceived. By order of the king, they put him to sleep, gouged out his eyes and threw him onto a deserted seashore.
The Sun God Helios restored his sight. Orion decided to take revenge on his enemies, but they cowardly hid in a cave. The giant searched for them for a long time, and during this time various adventures happened to him. Orion died from the bite of the terrible Scorpio, which was sent to him by the angry mistress of animals, the goddess Artemis.
Here is such a version
Take a closer look and try to remember the two brightest stars in the Orion constellation. Reddish-orange Betelgeuse (top left, α) is one of the largest stars in the sky. It is many, many times larger in volume than the Sun. And the star Rigel (bottom right, β) is the brightest star in this constellation. It is located much further from us than all the other stars of Orion. Rigel is a giant star and very hot, which is why it appears bluish-white to us.
In the constellation Orion there is a bright and special nebula called the Horsehead Nebula. It belongs to the dark or absorbing nebula, and it would not be visible to us at all if not for the bright background of another nebula in this constellation. From below you can see a large cloud of gas and dust, from which the raised head of a stallion rises above everything.
In Bernard's catalog, this nebula is listed as number 33. It was first discovered completely by accident in 1888, namely while studying photographic plates of the constellation Orion. The spectacular and beautiful Horsehead Nebula has become one of the most famous objects in space. And since this nebula is not always easily observed, it is even used as a test of equipment.
Its extremely expressive shape made it one of the most famous astronomical objects.
The light pink glow of the hydrogen cloud, against which the dark outlines of the Horsehead actually appear, appears under the influence of ultraviolet radiation from Sigma Orionis, a young bright OB class star. The polarization map of the cloud's glow suggests that σ Orionis is the only source of hot radiation illuminating this region (the nearby bright star ζ Orionis is closer to us than the cloud and therefore is in no way connected with it). The presence of a single powerful radiation source makes Horsehead an excellent single laboratory for testing existing models of photodissociation processes that describe the interaction of gas and dust immersed in a “sea” of ultraviolet quanta.
In the sky, this constellation occupies a fairly large area and is located mostly horizontally. You need to focus on Betelgeuse - it is reddish in color, and if you draw a line down along Orion's belt, you will come across Sirius - the brightest star in the sky.
Betelgeuse
Red supergiant Betelgeuse(α Orionis), which means “armpit” in Arabic, is an irregular variable star whose brightness varies from 0.2 to 1.2 magnitude and averages about 0.7m. The distance to the star from Earth is 430 light years, and its luminosity is 14,000 times greater than that of the Sun. This is one of the largest stars known to astronomers: if it were placed instead Sun, then with a minimum size it would fill the orbit of Mars, and with a maximum size it would reach the orbit Jupiter. Volume Betelgeuse at least 160 million times more solar.
Rigel
Blue-white supergiant Rigel (β Orion), which means "foot" in Arabic, has a visual magnitude of 0.18. Rigel is located more than 770 light years away from Sun. Its surface temperature is 11,200 K (class B8I-a), its diameter is about 95 million km (that is, 68 times larger Sun) and the absolute magnitude is −6.69; its luminosity is 40,600 times higher than the Sun, which means it is one of the most powerful stars in Galaxy(in any case, the most powerful of the brightest stars in the sky, since Rigel- the closest star with such enormous luminosity). The ancient Egyptians tied Rigel With Sakhom- king of the stars and patron of the dead, and later - with Osiris.
Uranographia" by John Hevelius (1690)
Uranographia "J. E. Bode (Berlin 1801)
click on the image to enlarge it
Urania's Mirror" (London, 1825)
Orion is a famous hunter in ancient Greek mythology, distinguished by his extraordinary beauty and such height that he was sometimes called a giant. Son of Poseidon and the nymph Euryale, grandson of Kronos and Rhea, husband of Merope. Another version of the hero’s birth tells that Zeus and Hermes visited Hyrieus, a resident of Thebes. When he, after sacrificing a bull and treating the gods, began to complain about childlessness, the guests demanded the skin of the victim. When the owner brought the skin, they filled it with urine and ordered it to be buried in the ground. After some time, a boy emerged from it, receiving the name Urion, which gradually changed to “Orion” for the sake of euphony.
After Orion stole Merope and married her against the wishes of her father, who deceived Orion, was blinded by him. He restored his sight by traveling to the place of the rise of Helios, in which one of the students of Hephaestus, whom Orion carried on his shoulders, served as his guide. Orion exposed his blind eyes to the rays of the sun god, and Helios restored his sight. There he was noticed by the goddess Eos and became her lover.
He was Artemis’s hunting partner; according to some versions, he could or would have claimed to become the goddess’s lover. He was struck by the arrow of Artemis for defeating her in a hunt, or for violating her virginity, or out of jealousy at the instigation of Apollo, the brother of the goddess, who feared for her honor.
According to another version of his death, he was bitten by a monstrous scorpion sent by Gaia or Poseidon during his pursuit of the Pleiades. Perhaps Asclepius tried to resurrect him, but was killed by a lightning strike from Zeus. After his death, Orion was turned into the constellation of the same name (according to some versions of the myth, together with his dog, turned into the star Sirius or the constellation Canis Major; in myths involving Asclepius, he was also turned into the constellation Ophiuchus).
The middle star in Orion's Sword is θ Orionis, a known multiple star system: its four bright components form a small quadrangle - the Trapezium of Orion. In addition, there are four more fainter stars. All of these stars are very young, having recently formed from interstellar gas in an invisible cloud that occupies the entire eastern part of the constellation Orion. Only a small piece of this cloud, heated by young stars, is visible under Orion’s Belt in a small telescope and even in binoculars as a greenish cloud; this is the most interesting object in the constellation - the Great Orion Nebula (M42), located approximately 1500 light years away from us and having a diameter of 20 light years (15,000 times the diameter of the Solar System). It was the first nebula photographed by astronomers (H. Draper, 1880).
0.5° south of the eastern Belt star (ζ Orionis) is the well-known dark Horsehead Nebula (B 33), which is clearly visible against the bright background of the IC 434 nebula.
Asterisms
The Sheaf asterism, which determines the characteristic shape of the constellation, includes the stars - α (Betelgeuse), β (Rigel), γ (Bellatrix), ζ (Alnitak), η (Mintaka), κ (Saif).
An alternative name for the asterism is Butterfly.
The four asterisms are associated with parts of the traditional constellation figure.
Orion's belt - the stars Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak (δ, ε and ζ Orionis, respectively). Also known as Three Kings, Three Wise Men (Wise Men), Rake.
The Sword of Orion is an asterism that includes two stars (θ and ι) and the Great Nebula of Orion.
The Shield of Orion is an asterism consisting of six stars arranged in an arc: π1, π2, π3, π4, π5 and π6. The ancient name is Tortoiseshell.
Orion's Club is an asterism in the northern part of the constellation, including the five stars χ2, χ1, ν, ξ and 69.
The next two asterim contain, in fact, the same stars.
Mirror of Venus. The Belt of Orion asterism, the star - the handle of the Sword and the star η Orion form a diamond-shaped mirror, and the Sword of Orion asterism itself acts as the handle of the mirror. Thus, the asterism includes the stars η, δ, ε, ζ, θ and ι Orionis.
The new Pan asterism arose among Australian astronomy enthusiasts. In the southern hemisphere of the Earth, celestial objects, in particular constellations, are visible in an inverted position, relative to their visibility in the northern hemisphere. Thus, the Mirror of Venus asterism turns out to be inverted: its handle acts as the handle of the Pan, the rest of the stars make up the Pan itself. The asterism includes the stars η, δ, ε, ζ, θ and ι Orionis.
The best conditions for observations are in November - January.
In the arrangement of the stars of the constellation, a human figure can be easily guessed. In Ancient Egypt, the constellation Orion was considered the “king of the stars,” and in Ancient Babylon it was called the “Faithful Shepherd of the Heavens.” In the Jewish (and biblical) tradition, Orion corresponded to the constellation Kesil or Kesil (Hebrew כסיל, “fool”), the origin of which has not yet been explained.
In Ancient Greece, the great hunter Orion was seen in the constellation, according to Greek myth, the son of Poseidon and Euryale. Placed in heaven by Father Poseidon after the death of Orion from the arrows of the goddess Artemis (according to another version of the myth, from the bite of Scorpio).
The constellation is included in the catalog of the starry sky of Claudius Ptolemy “Almagest”.
Heart of Orion (nebula in the constellation Orion)
Under Orion's Belt you can find the bright gas and dust nebula M42 (NGC 1976) - the Great Orion Nebula, its integral brightness is 4.0m. To the naked eye, the nebula is visible as an inconspicuous small speck, similar to a comet. Through a telescope, the nebula appears in all its glory. In the center of the nebula you can see four hot stars - the Trapezium of Orion. Around the Trapezium of Orion is a region of active star formation, which consists of a super-dense young cluster of stars and T Tauri variables. Dense molecular clouds are located nearby; these are the giant molecular clouds Orion A and Orion B closest to the Sun, the distance to them is 400-500 pc.
The nebula is located 1,500 light-years from Earth, and the reddish color in the photograph is due to the strong glow at the wavelength of hydrogen, which makes up the bulk of the gas in the Great Nebula.
The Torch Nebula (NGC 2024) in the Constellation Orion (Flame Nebula - Orion)
A gas and dust nebula from the constellation Orion, designated NGC 2024 in Henry Draper's catalog. This beautiful complex of luminous clouds with numerous dark inclusions is visible close to the leftmost of the three stars of Orion's belt - σ Orionis. Apparently it is Orion's σ that illuminates this object. The distance to the nebula may be about 1000 light years.
Orion is very useful as a helper for finding other stars. If we draw a straight line through Orion's belt, then in the west we will see Aldebaran (alpha Taurus), and in the east - Sirius (alpha Canis Major). A line east through the first row of stars points to Procyon (alpha Canis Minor), and if you draw a line from Rigel (the westernmost star in the third row, the beginning of Orion's left leg) through Betelgeuse (the easternmost star in the first row, Orion's right armpit), then we will be able to see Castor and Pollux (alpha and beta Gemini).
If we are talking about stars, then it is worth saying that the constellation Orion is unusually rich in bright objects.
Alpha Orion is Betelgeuse, a red star larger than the orbit of Mars. But despite being alpha, it is slightly dimmer than Rigel. Rigel - constellation beta - a huge blue-white star, one of the brightest stars in the earth's sky. The stars of Orion's belt look especially impressive - Mintaka (delta), Alnitak (zeta) and Alnilam (epsilon) - three bright stars standing next to each other - only by them alone can you recognize Orion among other constellations.
The Orion constellation is also famous for the fact that inside it you can even see with the naked eye, or at least with the help of binoculars, something other than stars, swirling clouds of nascent stars, glowing gas and dust. “Inside” Orion, there are nebulae such as the Orion Nebula and the Horsehead Nebula. And if you get a larger telescope, you can see Bernard’s Loop and even NGG 2024! In short, the constellation Orion is one of the most intense regions of star birth.
Orion itself, with its current configuration of stars, appeared in our sky about one and a half million years ago. And, according to calculations, the constellation will be quite recognizable for another one and a half to two million years, which will make it one of the longest observed constellations, which developed in parallel with human civilization.
M43 (NGC 1982) - De Mairan Nebula in the Constellation Orion
M43 is a diffuse nebula (NGC 1982) that reflects and scatters light. It is now considered part of the Orion Nebula, separated from M42 by a strip of dark dust. It was first described by Mairan in 1733 and bore his name for a long time.
The stars NU Orionis (HD 37061) with a magnitude of 6.5m-7.6m and spectral class B4 are immersed in M43. Most likely, M43 glows thanks to these stars, which were formed in this part of the Orion Nebula. The nebula shines with reflected light, since the energy of radiation from nearby stars is not enough to cause emission radiation. The M43 nebula contains, in addition to gases common to nebulae (hydrogen and helium), oxygen and even some molecular compounds, including organic ones.
But let's read an interesting version regarding the constellation Orion and Egyptian civilization.
Remnants of bygone civilizations have been preserved since ancient times. Archaeological excavations date these monuments to thousands of years BC, leaving one wondering how people of that era lived. Reconstructions are conditional in nature and are built mostly on assumptions rather than on finally verified and reliable data, which is always lacking. Facts that are completely opposite can coexist perfectly, and it is all the more difficult for a researcher to comprehend how everything happened in ancient times. And when new facts appear, this can lead either to a revision of theories, or to the fact that new facts are simply not noticed. Let's see what new science was able to see in relation to the well-known pyramids with the advent of modern research methods, and what conclusions it came to.
Our focus was on the pyramids at Giza (one of the “wonders of the world”), the Angkor Wat palace complex in Korea and the Egyptian megalith. Recent studies indicate unprecedented accuracy and correspondence of their construction to the location of stars in the sky 10,500 years ago. It turned out that the three pyramids at Giza reproduce and display the celestial picture - the location and size of the three stars of the Orion constellation. The view from above shows that the Great Pyramid and the second pyramid lie on a diagonal, directed at an angle of 45˚, i.e. southwest to the south side of the first. The third pyramid is slightly offset to the east of this line. The three stars of Orion’s Belt also form a kind of “irregular diagonal”...
However, if you look at the sky today, you will not find an exact correspondence between the topography of the Giza Valleys and the constellation Orion. In order to find out what the sky was like at the time of the construction of the pyramids, it is necessary to look into the past. And such research was carried out by Bauval. To determine the period when the location of the pyramids fully corresponded to the location of the stars of Orion, he had to use the astronomical computer program Skyglobe 3.5 and take into account a cosmic phenomenon called precession. Precession is an extremely slow wobble of the earth's axis along a circular cone, the cycle of which lasts 25,920 years. The result of this cycle is a shift in the position of stars at a rate of 1˚ in 72 years (i.e. 360˚ in 25920 years). Thus, the scientist was able to discover an era in the past when the picture of the starry sky coincided with the location of the pyramids: “This era falls on 10,500 BC, the lowest point, or the beginning (in fact, the “First Time”) of the current precessional cycle of the constellation Orion. It was during this era, and only during this era, that the location of the pyramids on earth accurately reproduced the position in the sky of the three stars of Orion’s Belt.” It should be noted that Osiris in ancient Egyptian texts is often called the God of the First Time. Therefore, if the date corresponds to 10500 BC. the beginning of the precessional cycle is a coincidence, then this coincidence is clearly amazing... So far, science has found it difficult to find an answer to such riddles.
Now let's look at another wonder of the world, located in distant Cambodia, which, according to historians, cannot in any way be connected with the Egyptian pyramids. The second “miracle” is the palace complex and, which appeared a thousand years after the disappearance of the civilization of the pharaohs, namely between 802 and 1220. AD Inspired by the results of Robert Bauval, his colleague Graham Hancock chose it for his research not by chance: Angkor is located 72˚ east of Giza. The name Angkor in Sanskrit means “city”, but at the same time in the ancient Egyptian language the combination “Angkor” has the exact meaning “God of the mountains lives.” Among the surviving triumphal inscriptions of Jayavarman VII, the Khmer king, a mysterious inscription was discovered on a stele excavated on the territory of the royal palace: “The land of Kambu (Cambodia) is similar to the sky.” It was this clue that inspired researchers to search for the unsolved mysteries of this ancient structure.
In 1996 Hancock's assistant D. Grisby, correlating Angkor with the starry sky, discovered that the main structures of this temple imitate the wavy line of the constellation Draco, or Orion! Angkor Wat consists of five rectangles located inside each other. Their short sides face exactly north and south: according to the latest topographic measurements, “absolutely without error.” The long sides are just as accurately oriented to the east and west (0.75 degree error). It is noteworthy that these palaces were erected on the sites of even more ancient buildings, so this raises another important question: who and when began the construction of this temple?
To do this, Hancock also used the Skyglobe 3.5 computer program, with which Bauval revealed the hidden plan for the placement of the Giza pyramids. The starting point was the date of 1150 AD, when Suryavarman II died, during which Angkor Wat was erected. But neither in this nor in any other historical period of the existence of Angkor was there a case where this constellation was in the corresponding position. There was only one thing left to do: check what the sky looked like over Angkor in 10,500 BC. And Hancock was right: in 10500 BC. on the day of the spring equinox, the constellation Draco appeared in the north in the middle of the sky, as if projecting its stars onto the main temples of Angkor!
It turns out that the main temples of Angkor, like the pyramids of Giza, record the same date - 10500 BC. But it is well known that in this era, neither in Egypt, nor, even more so, in the territory of present-day Cambodia, there were even the beginnings of such a highly developed civilization, which was able not only to create such grandiose structures, but also to accurately reproduce in them the visible picture of the starry sky! And why in both cases are the monuments tied specifically to 10,500 BC? Is there some hidden connection in this? One can, of course, assume that the temples were built precisely at this time, and not when historians still believed. But an even greater mystery remains: for what purpose were they built? And how could Neolithic people have such precise knowledge that allowed them to make calculations with a minimum degree of error? For example, the Great Pyramid of Giza is almost perfectly oriented to the cardinal points. The average error is about two arcminutes, which corresponds to a relative error of less than 0.015%. An error of two or three degrees - an error of about a percent - is impossible to notice with the naked eye, but the volume of preparatory and construction work with this value is reduced very significantly.
Further, if we compare the sides of the base of the pyramid, we will see a minimal difference in size: 230.3 and 230.1 meters, which is less than 0.1%. Even in the construction of modern buildings it is difficult to achieve such a small deviation; the error in our buildings is usually 1-2%, i.e. more than the ancient builders! The ancient builders of the pyramid achieved almost ideal values for its angles: southeastern and southwestern - 89° 56′ 27″, northeastern - 90° 3′ 2″, northwestern 89° 59′ 58″ (an error of only two seconds). In addition, the pyramids are folded in such a way that the top is located exactly above the center of the base. Even a slight error in the angle of one of the side faces could lead to a significant divergence of the ribs at the apex. How the physical and organizational difficulties were overcome in order to withstand such exceptional precision remains a mystery...
G. Hancock in his acclaimed book “The Mirror of Heaven, or the Search for the Lost Civilization” tried to answer the question about the purpose of the construction of these structures. In his opinion, in prehistoric times there existed a spiritual system on Earth based on the idea of rebirth and immortality. It belonged to a very developed civilization, which somehow disappeared from the face of the earth...
The constellation Orion is the most beautiful in the entire night sky. It contains very bright stars. By connecting these stars and turning on your imagination, you can easily overlook the figure of the hunter. The figure from the southeastern side points to the blue giant (in the constellation Canis Major). From the north-west side it indicates radiant red (in the constellation Taurus). It covers an area of approximately 594 square degrees in the sky. Easily recognizable in the night sky due to its bright outlines.
The constellation Orion can be easily seen in late summer, autumn and winter. It is observed until mid-April. It is observed throughout Russia and is considered autumn-winter.
If you look closely at the constellation on a moonless and cloudless night, you can easily count 200 stars. Among them are objects that create the outline of Orion. These are very bright stars of zero magnitude. Five stars from the outline are of second magnitude and four are of third magnitude. Among these stars there are variables, nebulae, hot stellar associations, and asterisms. The two brightest stars in the constellation Orion are Rigel and Betelgeuse.
- red supergiant. In Arabic, Betelgeuse means "armpit". This is an invalid variable. Its brightness ranges from 0.2 to 1.2. On average, the brightness of this giant is 0.7 magnitudes. The distance from us to this monster is 430 light years. It shines 14,000 times brighter than our star.
Betelgeuse is one of the largest stars ever discovered. If Betelgeuse were placed instead of our Sun, it would occupy the distance to Mars at its minimum. At maximum, the surface of this star would be approximately in the orbit of Jupiter. Its volume exceeds the volume of our Sun by about 160 times!
- is a blue-white supergiant. The name "Rigel" means "foot" in Arabic. It has almost zero magnitude. It is located at a distance of 770 from us. The surface of this giant has a temperature of 11,200 K. The diameter of Rigel is 68 times the diameter of our Sun and is 95 million kilometers. This is the most powerful star closest to us. Rigel, the ancient Egyptians associated it with Sakh. Sakh is the king of the stars and the patron of the dead.
It is worth paying attention to the multiple star system θ Orionis, which is located in Sword. It outlines the Trapezium of Orion. Consists of four elements.
Video composition of several photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
You can easily see it with a small telescope. It is the very first nebula that astronomers photographed.
3D Animation of the Orion Nebula
All images below were obtained using various filters and ranges, as well as many hours of exposure.
- a nebula that has a silhouette that is very similar to the head of a horse.
Orion includes the following asterisms: Butterfly, Magus, Belt, Sword, Shield, Club, Mirror of Venus, Pan. These asterisms are tightly intertwined with each other. In fact, the entire constellation is one large set of asterisms.
