Betelgeuse vs Rigel
Orion's two beacons — a cool red supergiant and a hot blue supergiant.
Betelgeuse
The red supergiant on Orion's shoulder.
- Constellation
- Orion
- Type
- Red supergiant
- Color
- Distinctly reddish-orange
- Variability
- Semiregular variable (brightness changes over time)
Rigel
The blue supergiant at Orion's foot.
- Constellation
- Orion
- Type
- Blue supergiant
- Color
- Blue-white
- Note
- Among the most luminous stars near the Sun
Shared characteristics
Connections both Betelgeuse and Rigel share in the knowledge graph.
Related entities
- Atlas view
Constellation Atlas
The eighty-eight official constellations, each mapped by the real positions of its brightest stars. A gateway from the familiar patterns of the night sky into the stars, myths, and deep-sky objects each region holds.
- Atlas overlay
Constellation Lines Overlay
The familiar stick-figure lines that join a constellation's stars, drawn between the real stellar positions to make the ancient patterns legible on the star map.
- Stellar process
The Asymptotic Giant Branch
Late in a low- or intermediate-mass star's life, both a hydrogen shell and a helium shell burn around a carbon–oxygen core. Recurring thermal pulses dredge freshly-made elements to the surface and drive heavy mass loss, as the star climbs the asymptotic giant branch toward the ejection of its envelope.
- Constellation
Gemini
Gemini is a zodiacal constellation of the northern sky, one of the 88 modern constellations.
- Constellation
Taurus
Taurus is a large zodiacal constellation of the northern sky, one of the 88 modern constellations.
- Star
10 Orionis
Red giant in Orion, about 945 light-years from Earth.
Sources & references
The primary and reference sources this topic draws on.
- NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration
Mission data, planetary science, space telescopes, and public-domain imagery.
Most NASA-produced imagery is in the public domain; individual items are checked for usage terms before publication.
- ESAEuropean Space Agency
European missions, observatories, and space science imagery.
- IAUInternational Astronomical Union
Official naming, definitions, constellation boundaries, and astronomical nomenclature.