Star
A blue supergiant and the brightest star in the constellation Orion, tens of thousands of times more luminous than the Sun.
| Type | Star |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth | 860 ly |
| Diameter | 103,000,000 km |
| Mass | 4.18 × 10³¹ kg |
| Temperature | 11,827°C |
| Apparent magnitude | 0.13 |
| Redshift | 0 |
| Hemisphere | Southern |
| Discovered | 150 |
Stars spend most of their lives fusing hydrogen into helium in their core, and it's the balance between that outward pressure and gravity pulling inward that fixes how big and how bright a star gets.
At 103,000,000 km across, Rigel is 74 times the diameter of the Sun.
Its mass is 21 times the mass of the Sun.
The light reaching us from Rigel tonight left it around 860 years ago.
Its surface sits at 12,100 K, hotter than the Sun at 5,772 K, which is what sets its colour.
It has been on record since the year 150.
Play today's Cosmodle