Orion's Belt

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Orion's Belt is an asterism in the constellation of Orion. Other names include the Belt of Orion, the Three Kings, and the Three Sisters. The belt consists of three bright and easily identifiable collinear star systems – Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka – appearing from Earth to be nearly equally spaced in a line, spanning an angular size of ~140′ (2.3°). Owing to the high surface temperatures of their constituent stars, the intense light emitted is blue-white in color. In spite of their spot-like appearance, only Alnilam is a single star; Alnitak is a triple star system, and Mintaka is a quintuple. All three owe their luminosity to the presence of one or more blue supergiants. The brightest as viewed from the Sun is Alnilam, with an apparent magnitude of 1.7, followed by Alnitak at 2.05 and Mintaka at 2.23. The ten stars of the three systems have a combined luminosity approximately a million times that of the Sun. Orion's Belt appears widely in historical literature and in various cultures...

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