Bellatrix

• Vis. 1050
• Bol. 4000 L ☉

Bellatrix (Latin for " warrior " ) or γ Orionis is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion. It is next to the other Betelgeuse (right ) shoulder star of Orion. The just 243 light years away Bellatrix has an apparent magnitude of 1.62 mag. As bluish giant star of spectral type B2, it has about eight times the mass of the Sun and about 4000 -fold bolometric luminosity. In more than a few million years, they will become a red giant, but not explode due to their somewhat too low mass, but relatively quiet as a massive white dwarf. Bellatrix does not belong - as assumed for a long time - to the Orion association, but is much less far away from the sun. 1972 found that Bellatrix has slight variations in the brightness range of a few hundredths of a magnitude.

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Bellatrix, by Jim Kaler