Orion the Monarch of Constellations in the Night Sky | Astronomy
Well, we all fortunately or unfortunately look at the sky during the night time every day, have you ever wonder why some stars are being so weird. if you feel so, then I am pretty much sure that despite the place, you live you have seen these three stars aligned in a straight line( like you see in the below picture) that's Orion constellation (for people who don’t know about the constellation, it is a group of stars forming some kind of imaginary objects people, animal, etc). today in this blog I am going to discuss this miraculous thing in the space.
People are always good story makers, Ancient people are no Exception they have come up with tons of stories for all the things. out of which stories about the sky and stars are still being retained in the names of many things. Constellation is one among them.
So, moving to the story of this constellation
Named after the Hunter in the greek mythology, but many myths and stories are around this particular constellation in the many cultures like Babylonian, Hungarian and ancient American cultures
In greek/roman mythology, Orion is a giant hunter of ancient times, son of Euryale a Gorgan(a mythical character).
If you are good at imagining things, you almost figure out why they are saying this group of stars as a hunter by only seeing this above picture.if you didn't get it, see the below picture
Now you get the picture right, you can almost see most of the stars of this constellation with the naked eye even if you are in a light-polluted city and this Orion plays a pivotal role when it comes to navigating other stars.
Because this constellation is placed in the celestial equator (which I am going to talk about in another blog soon) its is mostly visible all across the globe.
Let's move to some astronomy stuff 😉
As I said earlier, constellations are imaginary lines created by humans, as these stars look like they are neighboring ones, but it's not true they are almost divided by millions of light-years in between them.
Orion Belt
So, taking the 3 aligned stars, they are called as Orion belt, b’cause it looks like a belt for the hunter. From left Alnitak(zeta), Alnilam(Epsilon), and Mintaka(Delta). Alnitak is almost 800 light-years away from us, Alnilam 1340 light-year and Mintaka being 915 light-years away from earth and all of them are more than a thousand times brighter than our sun. In it, Mintaka is actually a double star system meaning its two-stars being next to each other, with our naked eyes we cant differentiate it because one is brighter than the other one.
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse is in the top of the constellation, and right shoulder for the hunter it’s also known as Red Giant. it's one of the oldest stars in the constellation that's why it looks like a red ball, even if it dies today we cant see that immediately but can see it after around 400 years later, because of its distance from the earth and if it explodes even in in the day we can see those lights during the day time.
Rigel
Rigel the sixth brightest star in the night sky is a Blue giant that is left foot for the hunter and its actually double/binary star system and it approximately 860 light-years away from the earth and its very hotter star in the night sky.
Orion Sword
Finally, we come to the best part of the Orion. have you ever wonder, how the stars are born and ask can we see that? and the answer damn yes!!!. and you can see it with your naked eye.
The nebula is like clouds in the space made of kinda dust particles(technically hydrogen, helium, and other ionized gases), where the stars are actually born. here in the pictures if you look closer you can find small stars, which are like star babies😜 . Orion nebula is one of the favorite objects for astronomers and stargazers. with pair of binoculars, you can almost see the gases around the nebula, if your eyesight is good you can see the few colors in it.
Orions shield and hands are mostly not visible to your eyes unless you live in a nonlight polluted city
So, next time when you look at the sky, search for this great hunter.
Hope you enjoyed it,
Thanks for Reading.
