Star
Bellatrix
Blue-white star · B2III
γ Orionis · Orion
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Bellatrix is the third-brightest star in the constellation of Orion, positioned 5° west of the red supergiant Betelgeuse. 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. At only 244.6 light-years from the Solar System, it is the closest major star in Orion.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~252 light-years
Apparent mag.
+1.64
Spectral type
B2III
Luminosity
1,152 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−2.80
Catalogue
HIP 25336
Spectral type
B2III
True colour from its B–V index (-0.22): a surface around 14100 K.
Did you know
- Bellatrix is also known as γ Orionis.
- Its spectral type B2III marks it as a blue-white star.
- It lies in the constellation Orion.
