This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space. How far apart, think you, dwell the two most distant inhabitants of yonder star, the breadth of whose disk cannot be appreciated by our instruments? Why should I feel lonely? Is not our planet in the Milky Way?
Henry David Thoreau
- Bellatrix (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
BELLATRIX (Gamma Orionis). If constellations could talk, they might well shout “unfair” at great Orion, the Hunter, one of only four constellations to have two first magnitude stars (the others Crux, the Southern Cross, Centaurus, the Centaur, and Canis Major, Orion’s Hunting Dog).
- Bellatrix (Wikipedia)
Bellatrix is the third-brightest star in the constellation of Orion, positioned 5° west of the red supergiant Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis). It has the Bayer designation γ Orionis, which is Latinized to Gamma Orionis. With a slightly variable magnitude of around 1.6, it is typically the 25th-brightest star in the night sky. Located at a distance of 250±10 light-years from the Sun, it is a blue giant star around 7.7 times as massive as the sun with 5.75 times its diameter.
