Transcript Constellation of the Week: ORION

CONSTELLATION OF THE WEEK:
ORION
Kiersten, Morgan, & Arianna
According to Greek mythology, the stars in this region
of the sky are labeled Orion in honor of a great
hunter, son of Neptune and the nymph Eurayle.
 To the Egyptians, the same stars that are included in
the Orion constellation were a tribute to the god of
light, Osiris. Other cultures saw such things as a turtle
or octopus. Some cultures combined these stars and
others into larger figures like a Cayman or alligatorlike creature. Others saw subsets of the stars as
individual figures.
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 All in all, this shows that many cultures had different views
and stories for the arrangement of the night sky’s stars.
Mythology
 Orion, the hunter, stands by the river Eridanus and is
accompanied by his faithful dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor.
Together they hunt various celestial animals, including Lepus,
the rabbit, and Taurus, the bull. According to Greek mythology,
Orion was in love with Merope, one of the Seven Sisters who
form the Pleiades, but Merope would have nothing to do with
him. Orion's tragic life ended when he stepped on Scorpius, the
scorpion. The gods felt sorry for him, so they put him and his
dogs in the sky as constellations. They also put all of the animals
he hunted up there near him. Scorpius, however, was placed on
the opposite side of the sky so Orion would never be hurt by it
again.
This is just one of the many versions of Orion’s mythology.
Explanation of the following information
Right Ascension: 5 hours
Declination: 5 degrees
Visible between latitudes 85 and -75
degrees
Best seen in January (at 9:00 PM)
Abbreviation: Ori
Genitive: Orionis
Translation: The Great Hunter
BETELGEUSE
Betelguex; Betelgeuze; Beteiguex; Al Mankib.
 Red Super-Giant
 Betelgeuse is the 9th brightest
star in the sky.
 Betelgeuse also gives off nearly
50,000 times more light than the
Sun. Combined with the fact that
it is only 640 light years away
from the Earth, this means that
Betelgeuse is one of the
brightest stars in the sky.
This picture shows a scale of how large
this star is in comparison to the other
large stars in the solar system.
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Rigel is the 7th brightest star in the sky. It is
called Beta Orionis even though it is brighter
than Alpha Orionis (Betelgeuse).
Rigel is a system of a blue star and two white
stars. It is a blue supergiant and part of a 4 star
system, consisting of 2 binary stars. Rigel is
approximately 1400 light-years from earth.
Bellatrix
the amazon star
"warrioress" (west shoulder)
Gamma Orionis
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Distance: 240 light years
Brightness: 1100 times greater than the
Sun
Surface Temperature: 40,000 F
Color: White
Mass: 10 x the mass of the Sun
Bellatrix is the 22nd brightest star in the
sky.
Historically this star was used as a
luminosity standard that astronomers
could compare with other stars to check
for variability. But it was later discovered
that Bellatrix itself is an eruptive variable,
changing in luminosity by a few percent
over time. It ranges in magnitude from
1.59 to 1.64.
0 Saiph is the bright star
marking the right knee of
Orion. The name derives
from Saif al Jabbar, 'the
Sword of the Giant',
because of its proximity to
the sword that hangs from
Orions's waist.
0 It is 820 light years away.
Saiph
0 It's temperature (50,000
F) is much hotter than
the Sun's (10,000 F) and
its brightness is about
18,000 times that of the
Sun. Saiph, because of its
high temperature, is
white .
0 It is assumed that Saiph
was formed from the
nebulae clouds that
surround the
constellation.
Constellation:
Lambda (λ) Orion
Longitude 1900:
22GEM19
Longitude 2000:
23GEM42
Declination 1900:
+09.52'
Declination 2000:
+09.55'
Right ascension:
05h 35m Latitude:
-13.22'
Spectral class: O8
Magnitude: 3.7
Meissa
Meissa is a binary star and is best known for its
huge surrounding ring of gas, called Sh2-264
(or the Meissa Ring), about 150 light-years
across that is ionized by the star.
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Mintaka- Delta
Orionis - Arabic
word for belt
Alnilam - The
Amazon Star Belt of Pearls
Alnitak - Zeta
Orionis - The
Girdle
They lie about 1,500 light-years away,
born of Orion's interstellar clouds. these
three blue supergiant stars are hotter and
much more massive than the Sun. These
stars point towards Sirius, the dog star.
Orion Nebula
 Located 1,500 light-years away,
along our spiral arm of the Milky
Way, the Orion Nebula is
located in the middle of The
Sword region of the
constellation Orion the Hunter,
which dominates the early
winter evening sky, at the
northern latitudes.
 It was discovered by Nicholas
Peiresc in 1610. This nebula
can be seen with the naked
eye.
 This nebula is known as a
emission nebula: stars form
here.
 The stars found in this nebula
are over 1 million years old.
HORSE HEAD NEBULA
• It is approximately 1,500 light years from Earth, and is
approximately 3.5 light years wide.
• One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, it is part of a
swirling cloud of dark dust and gases, shaped like a horse's
head (hence its name). The red glow originates from hydrogen
gas predominantly behind the nebula, ionized by the nearby
bright star Sigma Orionis. The darkness of the Horsehead is
caused mostly by thick dust, although the lower part of the
Horsehead's neck casts a shadow to the left. Streams of gas
leaving the nebula are funneled by a strong magnetic field.
Bright spots in the Horsehead Nebula's base are young stars
just in the process of forming.
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The oldest image of a star pattern, that of the
famous constellation of Orion, has been recognized
on an ivory tablet some 32,500 years old.The tiny
sliver of mammoth tusk contains a carving of a manlike figure with arms and legs outstretched in the
same pose as the stars of Orion. The claim is made
by Dr Michael Rappenglueck, formerly of the
University of Munich, who is already renowned for
his pioneering work locating star charts painted on
the walls of prehistoric caves. The tablet also
contains mysterious notches, carved on its sides and
on its back. These could be a primitive "pregnancy
calendar", designed to estimate when a pregnant
woman will give birth.
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It was found in 1979 in a cave in the Ach Valley in the
Alb-Danube region of Germany. Carbon dating of
bone ash deposits found next to the tablet suggest it
is between 32,500 and 38,000 years old, making it
one of the oldest representations of a man ever
found.
http://www.crystalinks.com/orion.html