Stars · Star in Orion
Star
Rigel
Orion’s knee: a blue-white supergiant tens of thousands of times more luminous than the Sun. Its name means “the foot”.
- Constellation
- Orion
- Designation
- β Orionis
- Apparent magnitude
- 0.18 · 7th brightest star in the night sky
- Spectral class
- B8Ia
- Distance
- 863 light-years
- Position (J2000)
- RA 5h 15m · Dec −8° 12′
A blue-white supergiant, around 14,000 K, like Spica. About 340× brighter than the faintest star the eye can see. The light you are seeing left around 1163.
Look for
Compare it with Betelgeuse across the figure: blue-white against orange-red is the difference between a surface of about 12,000 °C and one of about 3,500 °C.
Science
Rigel is young — about eight million years — and massive. It will most likely end as a supernova.