Star Bellatrix

The star Bellatrix, also called γ Orionis, is the third brightest star in the constellation of Orion. Together with Betelgeuse it forms the shoulder star of Orion.

Facts about star Bellatrix

The apparent brightness of Bellatrix is 1.64mag and it has a distance of about 250 light-years. Thus the star belongs to the 30 brightest stars in the night sky. Furthermore, the bluish giant star of spectral class B2 has about eight times the mass of the Sun and 4000 times the luminosity. In a few million years it will inflate to a red giant. However, Bellatrix will end up as a white dwarf, because it will not explode due to its low mass. Furthermore, the star does not belong to the Orion association, because it has a smaller distance to the sun. Also, a small brightness variation in the order of a few hundredths has been detected in the case of Bellatrix.