50 Fun Facts About Orion Constellation

How many modern constellations does the IAU recognise, with Orion among them?

Orion was also one of the 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy in the 2nd century.

During which season is Orion most prominent in Northern Hemisphere evening skies?

From May to July it is in the daytime sky and invisible at most latitudes.

Which 2nd-century astronomer included Orion among his 48 constellations?

It is now one of the 88 modern constellations, abbreviated Ori.

Which red supergiant marks Orion's right shoulder?

Its expected supernova, within about 100,000 years, could outshine the Moon and be visible by day.

Which blue supergiant is Orion's brightest star and marks the hunter's left foot?

Beta Orionis is the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and part of the Winter Circle.

What are the three stars of Orion's Belt?

They lie at the centre of the rectangle formed by Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix and Saiph.

What does the name Alnilam mean in Arabic?

It is the middle and brightest Belt star, and at 1,344 light-years the farthest major star in Orion.

Which Belt star, the faintest of the three, carries the Delta designation and a name meaning "the belt"?

It is an eclipsing binary and the westernmost, northernmost star of the Belt.

Which Belt star is a triple system whose primary is the brightest O-type star in the night sky?

Its name means "the girdle", and the Horsehead and Flame nebulae lie close by.

Which star marks Orion's left shoulder and is nicknamed the "Amazon Star"?

Its name means "the female warrior", and at 244.6 light-years it is the closest major star in Orion.

Which star forms Orion's head?

Lambda Orionis means "the shining one" and sits at the apex of a small triangle with Phi1 and Phi2.

What does the name Saiph, Orion's right foot, mean?

It is a similar distance and size to Rigel but appears much fainter.

From which Arabic phrase does the name of Alpha Orionis derive?

Jawzā' was the female figure that traditional Arab astronomy saw in these stars.

If Alpha Orionis sat at the centre of the Solar System, whose orbits would it engulf?

Its radius is 640 to 764 times the Sun's, so its surface would lie beyond the asteroid belt.

By roughly what factor did Betelgeuse dim between October 2019 and February 2020?

Its magnitude fell from 0.5 to 1.7 in the so-called Great Dimming.

How long is Orion's red supergiant expected to shine as bright as the half-Moon after it goes supernova?

Its explosion is expected within the next 100,000 years.

What is Rigel's surface temperature?

Its stellar wind sheds mass ten million times faster than the Sun's.

What is the middle "star" of Orion's Sword actually?

Messier 42 is visible to the naked eye even from light-polluted areas.

What is the Orion Nebula's Messier number?

It is also catalogued as NGC 1976 and lies about 1,267 light-years away.

What is the young star cluster at the heart of the Orion Nebula called?

Its four main stars sit within 1.5 light-years, and Chandra measured their temperatures at up to 60,000 kelvins.

Who is generally credited with the first discovery of the Orion Nebula's nebulous nature, in 1610?

Oddly, Galileo never mentioned it despite observing the area in 1610 and 1617.

Which dark cloud near the eastern Belt star is named for its distinctive shape?

Williamina Fleming discovered it on a Harvard photographic plate in 1888.

Which astronomer discovered the dark horse-shaped cloud near the Belt in 1888?

She found it on a photographic plate at the Harvard College Observatory; it is also called Barnard 33.

Which body is the parent of the Orionid meteor shower?

The shower peaks around 20 October with up to 20 meteors an hour.

Which star do you find by extending the line of Orion's Belt to the southeast?

Northwestward the same line reaches Aldebaran, and a line across the shoulders points to Procyon.

How many square degrees does Orion cover, ranking it 26th of the 88 constellations?

Eugène Delporte drew its 26-sided boundary in 1930.

Which constellation borders Orion to the northwest?

Eridanus lies to the southwest, Lepus to the south, Monoceros to the east and Gemini to the northeast.

Which star do the six Pi Orionis stars, forming Orion's shield, lie west of?

Orion's club stretches north from Betelgeuse instead.

To which OB association do the stars of the Belt and Sword belong?

Betelgeuse, standing out in red, may be a runaway member of the same group.

In Greek myth, who were Orion's parents?

He boasted he would kill every animal on Earth, which enraged Gaia.

Which creature did Gaia send to kill Orion, so their constellations are never in the sky together?

Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, revived him with an antidote and stands midway between them in the sky.

Which king of Chios blinded Orion after the hunter assaulted his daughter Merope?

Orion stumbled to Hephaestus's forge on Lemnos, and Cedalion guided him east to be healed by the rising sun.

Which god's servant, Cedalion, rode on the blind Orion's shoulders to guide him towards the sunrise?

Helios, or in some versions Asclepius, restored his sight.

With which god did the ancient Egyptians identify Orion's stars, later syncretised with Osiris?

Because Orion rises before Sirius, Sah was paired with Sopdet, the goddess of that star.

What did the Babylonians call Orion?

MUL.SIPA.ZI.AN.NA was sacred to Papshukal and Ninshubur, messengers of the gods.

How many times does the Bible mention Orion, under the Hebrew name Kesil?

Job 38:31 asks, "Can you loosen Orion's belt?"

What does the Chinese name for Orion, Shen, literally mean?

It refers to the three Belt stars, and the Shang-dynasty character shows them above a man's head.

By what name are the three Belt stars known in Spain and most of Latin America?

In Puerto Rico they are the Three Wise Men, and Afrikaans speakers call them the Three Kings or Three Sisters.

To the Lakota, Orion's Belt is the spine of which animal?

The rectangle is its ribs, the Pleiades its head and Sirius its tail.

What kitchen item are the Belt and Sword compared to in Australia, where Orion appears upside down?

From the Southern Hemisphere the constellation is oriented south-upward.

Which US Army unit wore Orion's Belt and Sword as its insignia, thanks to a pun on its commander's name?

Its first commander was Major General John F. O'Ryan.

Which Māori star, known as Puanga, is watched with the Pleiades to mark the midwinter new year?

Its pre-dawn rising alongside Matariki starts the Māori year.

How is Orion known in the Rigveda?

Betelgeuse's nakshatra, Ardra, is presided over by Rudra, the Vedic form of Shiva.

Which film distribution company used the constellation as its logo?

Its stars appear on the shoulders of two hunting dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor, in traditional sky maps.

Which Belgian astronomer set Orion's 26-sided constellation boundaries in 1930?

The IAU adopted Orion's three-letter abbreviation, 'Ori', in 1922.

Which Mira-type variable red giant lies just east of Chi1 at the end of Orion's club?

Mu Orionis marks the club's elbow, Nu and Xi its handle.

Which nebula in Orion, magnitude 8.0, can easily be mistaken for a comet in a telescope eyepiece?

It sits about 1,600 light-years away, roughly the same distance as the Great Orion Nebula.

In Chukchi tradition, which star represents the arrow shot by the hunter Orion?

The Siberian people picture Orion as a hunter much like Western depictions.

Precolonial Filipinos called Orion's Belt 'balatik' after what kind of device?

The Polynesian figure Heiheionakeiki sees Orion's seven main stars as a child's string figure.

By roughly what year will precession carry Orion too far south to be seen from Great Britain?

Orion only lies on the celestial equator by coincidence of where the June solstice point currently sits.