Bellatrix

Star
Bellatrix (γ Orionis)

Bellatrix is the bright blue star in the lower right. The red star at the bottom left is Betelgeuse and the slightly less bright blue star in the middle of the large emission nebula is Meissa (λ Orionis).

AladinLite

Observation
dates equinox : J2000.0 , epoch : J2000.0

Orion

05 ^h 25 ^m 7.86 ^s

+ 06 ° 20 ′ 58.9 ″

1.64 likes

Typing

B − V color index

−0.22

U − B color index

−0.87

R − I index

−0.22

B2 III

(18.2 ± 0.9) km / s

(12.92 ± 0.52) mas

distance

(252 ± 10) ly
(77.4 ± 3.1) pc

Visual absolute brightness M _vis

−2.80 mag

Proper movement

Rec. Share:

(−8.11 ± 0.50) mas / a

Dec. portion:

(−12.88 ± 0.35) mas / a

Physical Properties

radius

(5.4 ± 0.8) R _☉

Luminosity

vis. 1050
bol. 4000 L _☉

Other names
and catalog entries

Bayer name	γ Orionis
Flamsteed name	24 Orionis
Bonn survey	BD + 6 ° 919
Bright Star Catalog	HR 1790 [1]
Henry Draper Catalog	HD 35468 [2]
Hipparcos catalog	HIP 25336 [3]
SAO catalog	SAO 112740 [4]
Tycho catalog	TYC 113-1856-1 [5]
Other names	ALS 14777 • FK5 201 • IRAS 16433-6856 • 2MASS J05250786 + 0620589 • NSV 1972 • 1RXS J052507.7 + 062103

annotation

↑ Calculated from apparent brightness and distance.

Bellatrix (lat. "Warrior") or γ Orionis is the third brightest star in the constellation Orion . Along with Betelgeuse, she is Orion's other (right) shoulder star.

properties

Bellatrix is a bright star in the constellation Orion (top right)

Bellatrix, about 250 light years away, has an apparent magnitude of 1.64, making it one of the 50 brightest stars in the night sky. As a bluish giant star of the spectral class B2 it has about eight times the mass of the sun and about 4000 times the bolometric luminosity .

In a few million years at the most, it will expand into a red giant , but due to its slightly insufficient mass, it will not explode, but will end up as a massive white dwarf .

Bellatrix does not belong - as long assumed - to the Orion association , but is much less far from the sun.

In 1972 it was found to have slight fluctuations in brightness in the range of a few hundredths of a size class .