Star
Saiph
Blue-white star · B0.5Iavar
κ Orionis · Orion
Shown in its true colour — like most stars, it is too far away to photograph as more than a point of light.
Saiph, designation Kappa Orionis and 53 Orionis, is a blue supergiant star and the sixth-brightest star in the constellation of Orion. Of the four bright stars that compose Orion's main quadrangle, it is the star at the south-eastern corner. A northern-hemisphere observer facing south would see it at the lower left of Orion, and a southern-hemisphere observer facing north would see it at the upper right. Parallax measurements yield an estimated distance of 650 light-years from the Sun. It is smaller, less luminous but hotter at its surface than Rigel with an apparent visual magnitude of 2.1. The luminosity of this star changes slightly, varying by 0.04 magnitudes.
Description from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
In your sky
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Key facts
Distance
~647 light-years
Apparent mag.
+2.07
Spectral type
B0.5Iavar
Luminosity
5,096 × Sun
Absolute mag.
−4.42
Catalogue
HIP 27366
Spectral type
B0.5Iavar
True colour from its B–V index (-0.17): a surface around 12900 K.
Did you know
- Saiph is also known as κ Orionis.
- Its spectral type B0.5Iavar marks it as a blue-white star.
- It lies in the constellation Orion.
