"depicted to have a lion's hide in his hand. There are alternative ways to visualise Orion. From the Southern Hemisphere, Orion is oriented south-upward, and the belt and sword are sometimes called the saucepan or pot in Australia and New Zealand. Orion's Belt is called ""Drie Konings"" (Three Kings) or the ""Drie Susters"" (Three Sisters) by Afrikaans speakers in South Africa and are referred to as ""les Trois Rois"" (the Three Kings) in Daudet's ""Lettres de Mon Moulin"" (1866). The appellation ""Driekoningen"" (the Three Kings) is also often found in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch star charts and seaman's guides. The"
"Orion Molecular Cloud Complex The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex (or, simply, the Orion Complex) is a star forming region with stellar ages ranging up to 12 Myr. Two giant molecular clouds are a part of it, Orion A and Orion B. The stars currently forming within the Complex are located within these clouds. A number of other somewhat older stars no longer associated with the molecular gas are also part of the Complex, most notably the Orion's Belt (Orion OB1b), as well as the dispersed population north of it (Orion OB1a). Near the head of Orion there is also a"
"Orion's Sword Orion's Sword is an astronomical asterism in the constellation Orion. It comprises three stars (42 Orionis, Theta Orionis, and Iota Orionis) and M42, the Orion Nebula, which together are thought to resemble a sword or a scabbard. This group is situated under the prominent asterism, Orion's Belt, where it points in a southerly direction. Origins behind Orion's Sword are based in mostly Greco-Roman tradition, though this group of stars is referenced as a weapon in multiple cultural contexts (see below). The Orion Nebula consists of a massive molecular cloud (30 - 40 light years in diameter) within the"
"Orionis cluster is part of the Ori OB1b stellar association, commonly referred to as Orion's Belt. The cluster was not recognised until 1996 when a population of pre-main sequence stars was discovered around σ Ori. Since then it has been extensively studied because of its closeness and the lack of interstellar extinction. It has been calculated that star formation in the cluster began 3 million years (myr) ago and it is approximately 360 pc away. In the central arc-minute of the cluster five particularly bright stars are visible, labelled A to E in order of distance from the brightest component"
"O stars should commonly produce bow waves if this model is correct. Sigma Orionis Sigma Orionis or Sigma Ori (σ Orionis, σ Ori) is a multiple star system in the constellation Orion, consisting of the brightest members of a young open cluster. It is found at the eastern end of the belt, south west of Alnitak and west of the Horsehead Nebula which it partially illuminates. The total brightness of the component stars is magnitude 3.80. σ Orionis is a naked eye star at the eastern end of Orion's Belt, and has been known since antiquity, but it was not"
"π Ori and π Ori) which make up Orion's shield. Around 20 October each year the Orionid meteor shower (Orionids) reaches its peak. Coming from the border with the constellation Gemini as many as 20 meteors per hour can be seen. The shower's parent body is Halley's Comet. Hanging from Orion's belt is his sword, consisting of the multiple stars θ1 and θ2 Orionis, called the Trapezium and the Orion Nebula (M42). This is a spectacular object that can be clearly identified with the naked eye as something other than a star. Using binoculars, its clouds of nascent stars, luminous"
"Sigma Orionis Sigma Orionis or Sigma Ori (σ Orionis, σ Ori) is a multiple star system in the constellation Orion, consisting of the brightest members of a young open cluster. It is found at the eastern end of the belt, south west of Alnitak and west of the Horsehead Nebula which it partially illuminates. The total brightness of the component stars is magnitude 3.80. σ Orionis is a naked eye star at the eastern end of Orion's Belt, and has been known since antiquity, but it was not included in Ptolemy's Almagest. It was referred to by Al Sufi, but"
"Mintaka Mintaka, also designated Delta Orionis (δ Orionis, abbreviated Delta Ori, δ Ori) and 34 Orionis (34 Ori) is a multiple star system some 1,200 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Orion. Together with Alnitak (Zeta Orionis) and Alnilam (Epsilon Orionis), the three stars form Orion's Belt, known by many names among ancient cultures. When Orion is near the meridian, Mintaka is the right-most of the Belt's stars when viewed from the Northern Hemisphere facing south. ""Delta Orionis"" is the star's Bayer designation, ""34 Orionis"" its Flamsteed designation. The name ""Mintaka"" itself is derived from an Arabic term"
"walk through the sea and on its surface. Artemis, the Goddess of the hunt, fell in love with Orion, but her twin brother, Apollo, was jealous and sent a scorpion to kill him. In her sorrow and remorse for his death, Artemis placed him in the sky as a constellation. Orion, the Great Hunter, is a brilliant constellation which straddles the celestial equator and is outlined by a quadrilateral of four 1st and 2nd magnitude stars—Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, and Saiph. Inside the quadrilateral are three second-magnitude stars forming the Belt of Orion. The three stars of the Belt point south-eastward"
"Orion (constellation) Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky. It was named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are Rigel (Beta Orionis) and Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), a blue-white and a red supergiant, respectively. The earliest depiction that has been linked to the constellation of Orion is a prehistoric (Aurignacian) mammoth ivory carving found in a cave in the Ach valley in West Germany in 1979. Archaeologists have estimated it to have been fashioned approximately"
"Stars (asterism)"", refers to an asterism consisting of Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka (Orion's Belt) with Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Saiph and Rigel Consequently, Alnitak are known as (, ).. It is one of the western mansions of the White Tiger. The ""USS Alnitah"" was a United States Navy ""Crater""-class cargo ship named after the star. Alnitak Alnitak, designated Zeta Orionis (ζ Orionis, abbreviated Zeta Ori, ζ Ori) and 50 Orionis (50 Ori), is a multiple star several hundred parsecs from the Sun in the constellation of Orion. It is one of the three main stars of Orion's Belt along with Alnilam and Mintaka."
"for 'belt': منطقة or ""manṭaqa"". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN's first bulletin of July 2016 included a table of the first two batches of names approved by the WGSN; which included ""Mintaka"" for this star. It is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. Mintaka is the westernmost of the three stars of Orion's belt. It is easily visible to the naked eye, one of the brightest stars in the sky, and has been known since antiquity. Radial"
"28 times that of the Sun (from an original mass 31.8 times that of the Sun) and an age of 6.2 million years. Large stars such as Saiph (and many other stars in Orion) are destined to collapse on themselves and explode as supernovae. The Wardaman people of northern Australia regard Saiph as the Guman digging stick, used to make a canyon by Black-headed Python. Saiph Saiph, also designated Kappa Orionis (κ Orionis, abbreviated Kappa Ori, κ Ori) and 53 Orionis (53 Ori), is the sixth-brightest star in the constellation of Orion. Of the four bright stars that compose Orion's"
"Iota Orionis Iota Orionis (ι Orionis, abbreviated Iota Ori, ι Ori) is a multiple star system in the equatorial constellation of Orion the hunter. It is the eighth-brightest member of Orion with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.77 and also the brightest member of the asterism known as Orion's Sword. It is a member of the NGC 1980 open cluster. From parallax measurements, it is located at a distance of roughly from the Sun. The system has three components designated Iota Orionis A, B and C. Iota Orionis A is itself a massive spectroscopic binary, with components Iota Orionis Aa"
"represented by Lambda, Mu, and Epsilon Leporis. Further Western European and Arabic depictions have followed these two models. Orion is bordered by Taurus to the northwest, Eridanus to the southwest, Lepus to the south, Monoceros to the east, and Gemini to the northeast. Covering 594 square degrees, Orion ranks twenty-sixth of the 88 constellations in size. The constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 26 sides. In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the declination coordinates are between and . The constellation's"
"with an orbital period of 9.8 days. Surprisingly, the more massive of the two also turned out to be the less luminous. The entirety of the Orion Nebula extends across a 1° region of the sky, and includes neutral clouds of gas and dust, associations of stars, ionized volumes of gas, and reflection nebulae. The Nebula is part of a much larger nebula that is known as the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The Orion Molecular Cloud Complex extends throughout the constellation of Orion and includes Barnard's Loop, the Horsehead Nebula, M43, M78, and the Flame Nebula. Stars are forming throughout"
"Trapezium Cluster The Trapezium or Orion Trapezium Cluster, also known by its Bayer designation of Theta Orionis, is a tight open cluster of stars in the heart of the Orion Nebula, in the constellation of Orion. It was discovered by Galileo Galilei. On February 4, 1617 he sketched three of the stars (A, C, D), but missed the surrounding nebulosity. The fourth component (B) was identified by several observers in 1673, and several more components were discovered later, for a total of eight by 1888. Subsequently several of the stars were determined to be binaries. Telescopes of amateur astronomers from"
"the same season Orion is prominent in the sky. Orion's sword is referenced in the song ""Dark Of The Sun"" by Tom Petty in his 1991 album ""Into The Great Wide Open"", in the line ""saw you sail across a river underneath Orion's sword..."" Orion's Sword Orion's Sword is an astronomical asterism in the constellation Orion. It comprises three stars (42 Orionis, Theta Orionis, and Iota Orionis) and M42, the Orion Nebula, which together are thought to resemble a sword or a scabbard. This group is situated under the prominent asterism, Orion's Belt, where it points in a southerly direction."
"about 5 inch aperture can resolve six stars under good seeing conditions. The Trapezium is a relatively young cluster that has formed directly out of the parent nebula. The five brightest stars are on the order of 15-30 solar masses in size. They are within a diameter of 1.5 light-years of each other and are responsible for much of the illumination of the surrounding nebula. The Trapezium may be a sub-component of the larger Orion Nebula Cluster, a grouping of about 2,000 stars within a diameter of 20 light-years. The Trapezium is most readily identifiable by the asterism of four"
"fainter Iota Orionis C is an A0 star at 49"". NGC 1980 contains few bright stars other than Iota Orionis. Only eighteen other stars are considered members in a survey down to 14th magnitude, most of them around 9th magnitude but including the 5th magnitude stars HR 1886 and 1887. Iota Orionis Iota Orionis (ι Orionis, abbreviated Iota Ori, ι Ori) is a multiple star system in the equatorial constellation of Orion the hunter. It is the eighth-brightest member of Orion with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.77 and also the brightest member of the asterism known as Orion's Sword."
"Bellatrix Bellatrix, also designated Gamma Orionis (γ Orionis, abbreviated Gamma Ori, γ Ori), is the third-brightest star in the constellation of Orion, 5° west of the red giant Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse). Just between the first and second magnitude and slightly variable, it is about the 25th-brightest star in the night sky. Bellatrix is a massive star with about 8.6 times the Sun's mass. It has an estimated age of approximately 25 million years—old enough for a star of this mass to consume the hydrogen at its core and begin to evolve away from the main sequence into a giant star."
"375,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Its spectrum serves as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified. Mintaka (δ Orionis) is 1,200 light-years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. Mintaka is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun. Mintaka is a double star. The two stars orbit around each other every 5.73 days. Richard Hinckley Allen lists many folk names for the Belt of Orion. English ones include: Jacob's Rod or Jacob’s Staff; Peter's Staff; the Golden Yard-arm; The L, or Ell; The Ell and Yard; the Yard-stick, and the Yard-wand; the Ellwand; Our"
"due to the asterism of its primary four stars. Two of these can be resolved into their component binary systems on nights with good seeing, giving a total of six stars. The stars of the Trapezium, along with many other stars, are still in their early years. The Trapezium is a component of the much larger ""Orion Nebula Cluster"", an association of about 2,800 stars within a diameter of 20 light years. Two million years ago this cluster may have been the home of the runaway stars AE Aurigae, 53 Arietis, and Mu Columbae, which are currently moving away from"
"Eta Orionis Eta Orionis (η Orionis) is a multiple star in the constellation Orion. It lies a little to the west of Orion's belt between Delta Orionis and Rigel, being closer to Delta Orionis than to Rigel. It lies at a distance of around 1,000 light years from Earth and is part of the Orion OB1 association. The proper name Saiph is Arabic for ""sword"", and Algjebbah Arabic for ""scutum"". Eta Orionis is listed in multiple star catalogues as having two companions: a bright component B less than 2"" away; and a faint component C nearly 2' away. The primary"
"of associated objects scattered across more than 10 arc-minutes. The brightest member of the σ Orionis system appears as a late O class star, but is actually made up of three stars. The inner pair complete a highly eccentric orbit every 143 days, while the outer star completes its near-circular orbit once every 157 years. It has not yet completed a full orbit since it was first discovered to be a double star. All three are very young main sequence stars with masses between . The primary component Aa is the class O9.5 star, with a temperature of 35,000 K"
"32 Orionis 32 Orionis (32 Ori) is a triple star system in the constellation Orion. The apparent magnitude of the system is 4.20 and it is approximately 303 light years away based on parallax. The primary is a class B5V (blue main-sequence) star with a magnitude around 4.43; it is a spectroscopic binary with a period of 3.964 days and eccentricity 0.38, and an estimated mass of 0.6 solar masses for the smaller companion. Component B, at a separation of 1.08"", is a class B7V star with a magnitude of 5.8, orbiting with the primary at a period of 614"
"Rigel Rigel (), also designated Beta Orionis (β Orionis, abbreviated Beta Ori, β Ori), is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and the brightest in the constellation of Orion—though occasionally it is outshone within the constellation by the variable star Betelgeuse. With an apparent magnitude of 0.13, it is a luminous object some 863 light-years distant from Earth. Rigel as seen from Earth is actually a multiple star system of three to five stars, the primary star (Rigel A) being a blue-white supergiant which is estimated to be anywhere from 120,000 to 279,000 times as luminous as the"
"Milky Way Galaxy, though approximately 1,300 light years from the solar system. This makes the Orion Nebula one of the closest HII regions to Earth, a mass of hydrogen that has been ionized by nearby, hot, young stars. Regions like this are called stellar nurseries, nurturing the birth of multiple young stars such as the Orion Nebula Star Cluster. These stars are a significant feature of the Sword asterism. ""42 Orionis,"" also called c Ori, is a B1V magnitude star in the northern half of the Orion nebula. ""Theta Orionis"" has a more central position in the nebula, and is"
"Omicron1 Orionis Omicron Orionis (ο Ori) is a binary star in the northeastern corner of the constellation Orion. It is visible to the naked eye with an apparent visual magnitude of 4.7. Based upon an annual parallax shift of , it is located approximately 650 light years from the Sun. At that distance, the visual magnitude of the star is diminished by an interstellar absorption factor of 0.27 due to intervening dust. The two components of this system have an orbital period of greater than 1,900 days (5.2 years). The primary component is an evolved red giant with the stellar"
"The Orion Nebula is actually a thin layer of ionised gas on the outer border of the OMC-1 cloud. The stars in the Trapezium cluster, and especially θ Orionis, are responsible for this ionisation. The Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way at about 50 kpc (), contains a giant H II region called the Tarantula Nebula. Measuring at about () across, this nebula is the most massive and the second-largest H II region in the Local Group. It is much bigger than the Orion Nebula, and is forming thousands of stars, some with masses of over"
"for example Betelgeuse, which is predicted to explode sometime in the next million years. Orion (constellation) Orion is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the most conspicuous and recognizable constellations in the night sky. It was named after Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology. Its brightest stars are Rigel (Beta Orionis) and Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis), a blue-white and a red supergiant, respectively. The earliest depiction that has been linked to the constellation of Orion is a prehistoric (Aurignacian) mammoth ivory carving found in a cave in the Ach valley"
"Barnard's Loop Barnard's Loop (catalogue designation Sh 2-276) is an emission nebula in the constellation of Orion. It is part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex which also contains the dark Horsehead and bright Orion nebulae. The loop takes the form of a large arc centered approximately on the Orion Nebula. The stars within the Orion Nebula are believed to be responsible for ionizing the loop. The loop extends over about 600 arcminutes as seen from Earth, covering much of Orion. It is well seen in long-exposure photographs, although observers under very dark skies may be able to see it"
"until it reaches the termination shock boundary with the hot, ionized interstellar medium that dominates the Local Bubble, forming a roughly spherical astrosphere with a radius of around 1,000 AU, centered on Aldebaran. Aldebaran is one of the easiest stars to find in the night sky, partly due to its brightness and partly due to its spatial relation to one of the more noticeable asterisms in the sky. If one follows the three stars of Orion's belt from left to right (in the Northern Hemisphere) or right to left (in the Southern), the first bright star found by continuing that"