Rigel is a star that has amazed people with its beauty since ancient times. In Egypt, she was identified with the god of the dead and the patron of the starry sky Sakh, and later with Osiris. Rigel is part of the constellation Orion, one of the most visible celestial drawings.
Location
Orion is a winter constellation. The best time to see it is from November to January. It is enough to simply recognize him by the three luminaries that lined up on one straight line, observing the same distance between them. This is the Belt of Orion, the mythical hunter, the son of Poseidon, placed in heaven after death. Three stars, also called the Three Wise Men or Kings, appear late at night in the southern part of the sky. A well-marked reddish dot shines above the Belt. This is Alpha Orion, Betelgeuse. Almost diagonally from it, below the Three Kings, is the Beta of this celestial pattern - Rigel, a star that is rightfully considered the most beautiful.
It is interesting that Rigel is located near the celestial equator, that is, it is available for observation almost anywhere in the world. This is true, however, for the entire constellation Orion.
Orion's Foot
Like many other luminaries, Beta Orionis has a name of Arabic origin. Rigel in translation means "leg". Yes, and in appearance it is a hunter's knee.
What color is the star Rigel? In order to answer this question, it is enough to look at the sky on a winter night. Both a simple observer and an astronomer armed with a telescope will see Rigel as a bluish star. The reason for this is that it emits most of the light in the blue part of the spectrum.
Rigel belongs to the class of blue-white supergiants. Its luminosity significantly exceeds the solar one (more than forty thousand times). The distance from our planetary system to the star is estimated at about 770 light years, which makes Rigel one of the closest luminaries of similar brightness to us.
Neighbours
Rigel is a star with a diameter of about 95 million kilometers, which is 68 times larger than the same parameter of the Sun. The powerful radiation of this giant acts differently on approaching bodies than, for example, the light of the same Sun. All objects located at a distance of one astronomical unit (the same space separates the Earth and the Sun) will immediately evaporate under the influence of temperature and stellar wind.
However, the star Rigel has not only destructive potential. The constellation Orion is famous for the nebulae located on its "territory". One of them is the Witch's Head. It is the blue supergiant Rigel that gives us the opportunity to admire it. It illuminates the reflective nebula, making itavailable for observation. The bluish light of the Witch's Head is associated not only with the radiation of Beta Orion, but also with the "tendency" of cosmic dust to reflect the blue spectrum rays in the first place.
Star system
Riegel is a star with companions. Beta Orionis is a binary luminary. It was first observed in 1831 by Vasily Yakovlevich Struve. Rigel B is a less luminous star, located at a distance of 2200 astronomical units from component A.
Rigel B, in turn, refers to spectral binary stars. Both of its components belong to the main sequence and rotate around a common center of mass with a period of just under ten days.
Fickle
Another feature of Rigel is that it is a variable type star. For supergiants like him, this is uncharacteristic. The brightness of the star varies from 0.03 to 0.3 magnitude. The blink period is 22 to 25 days.
Emitting a bluish light, Rigel ejects approximately 90 billion tons of its substance into space every second. Such "wastefulness" most likely will not allow the star to live up to the age of our luminary (the Sun has been warming for 4.5 billion years). According to scientists, Rigel exists for about 10 million years and will shine for the same amount, and then collapses.
We can say that Rigel (photo) is a star: its beautiful glow is quite common in telescope pictures. The blue-white giant attractsthe view of both scientists and amateur astronomers or simply romantics who do not want to rest their eyes exclusively on the ground. A magnificent star, part of the bright Orion, boldly claims the right to be called the most beautiful.
