Orion
Constellation · The Hunter
Orion is one of the easiest constellations to recognise, thanks to three bright stars in a row forming the hunter’s belt. Because it sits on the celestial equator, everyone on Earth can see it.
- Rigel, BetelgeuseBrightest stars
- The three-star beltFamous for
- Dec – Mar eveningsBest seen
Take a closer look
Betelgeuse, the restless giant
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant so huge that it would swallow Mars’s orbit if it sat where the Sun is. It is near the end of its life and will one day explode as a supernova – sometime in the next 100,000 years. In 2019–2020 it dimmed noticeably when it puffed out a cloud of dust.
A belt that isn’t flat
The three belt stars – Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka – look like beads on one string, but they are not side by side. Alnilam, the middle one, lies much farther away than the other two. They only line up neatly from where we happen to stand.
Orion the signpost
Follow the belt down to the left and you reach Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Follow it up to the right and you find orange Aldebaran and then the Pleiades. Betelgeuse, Sirius and Procyon together make a big shape called the Winter Triangle.
How we found out
- Ancient Egypt
Egyptians linked these stars with Osiris, their god of the afterlife.
- Ancient Greece
The Greeks told of Orion, a giant hunter. He was placed in the sky opposite the Scorpion that defeated him.
- Around the world
In parts of India, the stars are seen as Mriga, a deer. To some Aboriginal Australian groups they form a canoe.
Why does Orion appear upside-down from Australia?
From the Southern Hemisphere you are looking at the sky from the “other side” of Earth – so the hunter appears to stand on his head!
See it yourself
Find three bright stars in a short straight row. Above and below them are Betelgeuse and Rigel.
From the encyclopedia
Read the full article on Wikipedia ↗Got it?
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