Orion (constellation) facts for kids

This page is about the constellation. For other uses, see Orion.

Quick facts for kids
Orion
Constellation
List of stars in Orion
Abbreviation	Ori
Genitive	Orionis
Symbolism	Orion, the Hunter
Right ascension	5^h
Declination	+5°
Quadrant	NQ1
Area	594 sq. deg. (26th)
Main stars	7
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	81
Stars brighter than 3.00^m	8
Stars within 10.00 pc (32.62 ly)	8
Brightest star	Rigel (β Ori) (0.12^m)
Messier objects	3
Meteor showers	Orionids Chi Orionids
Bordering constellations	Gemini Taurus Eridanus Lepus Monoceros
Visible at latitudes between +80° and −68°. Best visible at 21:00 (9 p.m.) during the month of January.

Orion is one of the most famous patterns of stars in the entire night sky. People all around the globe can see its bright shape during winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Orion is officially one of the 88 modern constellations recognized by astronomers today. Long ago, the ancient astronomer Ptolemy included it on his list of 48 ancient constellations. The constellation gets its popular name from a mighty hunter who lived in stories from Greek mythology.

Seven very bright stars make up the main shape of Orion, looking like a giant hourglass. In the middle sits a neat row of three stars known everywhere as Orion's Belt. Orion contains two giant stars named Rigel and Betelgeuse, which are both among the brightest beacons in the heavens. It also holds the glowing Orion Nebula, where baby stars are born, and brings the exciting Orionids meteor shower each autumn.

Where to find Orion in the night sky

Orion glowing brightly on a clear winter night

Orion is easy to spot because of its huge size and bright stars. It covers 594 square degrees of space, ranking as the 26th largest constellation in the sky. It borders several other well-known star groups. You can find Taurus to the northwest and the winding river Eridanus to the southwest. Below Orion hops Lepus the hare, while Monoceros the unicorn stands to the east. The twin stars of Gemini rest to the northeast.

In the year 1930, a Belgian astronomer named Eugène Delporte officially drew the border lines around Orion. It has 26 distinct sides. In the sky's mapping system, its right ascension stretches between 4 hours 43 minutes and 6 hours 25 minutes. Its declination reaches from about 23 degrees north to 11 degrees south. In 1922, the International Astronomical Union chose the short nickname "Ori" for scientific charts.

Best seasons for skywatching

The best time to look for Orion in the evening is from January through April. This period falls during winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Near the equator, in countries like Kenya, Indonesia, Colombia, and Ecuador, Orion climbs straight up to the zenith directly above your head. During December, people there can look up at midnight to see the giant hunter shining in full glory.

From May until July, Orion passes across the daytime sky next to the Sun, making it invisible to our eyes. Down in Antarctica, strange things happen with the seasons. During their freezing winter months, the Sun never rises above the horizon, leaving the sky in deep twilight. Around local noon, observers at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station can glimpse Orion's brightest stars skirting low across the north. During their summer months, the midnight Sun never sets, so Orion cannot be seen at all.

How to use Orion for stargazing navigation

Follow imaginary lines across Orion to find neighboring stars

Stargazers often use Orion like an enormous celestial signpost to find other stars across the night sky. If you follow the straight line of Orion's Belt down toward the southeast, you will run right into Sirius. Sirius is the brightest star in Canis Major and the brightest star in the entire sky. If you follow the belt in the other direction toward the northwest, you will spot orange Aldebaran in Taurus.

Drawing a line across Orion's two broad shoulders pointing east leads straight to Procyon in the small dog group, Canis Minor. If you draw an imaginary line starting at Rigel and passing up through Betelgeuse, your eye will land on Castor and Pollux in Gemini. Rigel also forms one corner of a giant circle of winter stars called the Winter Hexagon. Sirius and Procyon also link with Betelgeuse to create the bright Winter Triangle.

The brightest stars of the hunter

An illustration of Orion from an old star chart book called Urania's Mirror

A 3D anaglyph showing the stars in Orion

Orion has four bright stars that create a large rectangle around the hunter's torso. Betelgeuse and Bellatrix mark his broad shoulders, while Saiph and Rigel form his knees or feet. Inside this rectangle sits the famous line of three stars known as Orion's Belt. Just above his shoulders, a smaller star named Meissa represents his head. Hanging beneath the belt is Orion's Sword, which holds a glowing stellar nursery.

Many of these suns belong to a huge family called the Orion OB1 stellar association. Most of them are massive blue supergiant stars that burn hot and bright. Together, they make Orion one of the most eye-catching wonders in space.

The 8 Brightest Stars in Orion
Proper name	Bayer designation	Light-years away	Apparent magnitude
Betelgeuse	Alpha Orionis	548	0.50
Rigel	Beta Orionis	863	0.13
Bellatrix	Gamma Orionis	250	1.64
Mintaka	Delta Orionis	1,200	2.23
Alnilam	Epsilon Orionis	1,344	1.69
Alnitak	Zeta Orionis	1,260	1.77
Saiph	Kappa Orionis	650	2.09
Meissa	Lambda Orionis	1,320	3.33

Betelgeuse the red supergiant

Betelgeuse marks the right shoulder of the hunter. Astronomers classify it as an M-type red supergiant. It is truly humongous: if you put Betelgeuse in the center of our Solar System, it would swallow the inner planets. It is a semiregular variable star, meaning its brightness dims and brightens over months and years. In late 2019, it faded noticeably before returning to normal brightness, exciting skywatchers everywhere.

Betelgeuse is nearing the final chapter of its stellar life. It has burned up much of its fuel and will one day explode as a massive supernova. When this happens, it will shine bright enough to be seen in broad daylight and might outshine the Moon. Astronomers predict this spectacular explosion will likely occur sometime within the next 100,000 years.

Rigel the blue supergiant

Rigel shines at the hunter's left foot and is the brightest star in Orion. In the wider night sky, it ranks as the seventh-brightest star of all. Rigel is a blazing B-type blue supergiant star that gives off tens of thousands of times more light than our own Sun.

Rigel creates energy deep inside through intense nuclear fusion. Like Betelgeuse, Rigel is living fast and burning its core quickly. Scientists expect that Rigel will also end its life in a tremendous supernova blast when its fuel runs out.

Bellatrix the Amazon star

Bellatrix marks Orion's left shoulder. Its name comes from a Latin word meaning "female warrior," earning it the nickname the "Amazon Star." It ranks as the 27th-brightest star in the sky.

Unlike its giant neighbor Betelgeuse, Bellatrix is a hot blue giant star. It shines brightly because its surface is scorching hot, not because it is abnormally huge. Located about 245 light-years away, Bellatrix is the closest of Orion's major stars to our planet Earth. It does not have enough mass to explode as a supernova.

Saiph and Meissa

Saiph serves as Orion's right foot, opposite Rigel. Even though Saiph is roughly the same size and distance as Rigel, it appears fainter to our eyes because it puts out much of its energy as invisible ultraviolet light. Its name comes from an Arabic phrase meaning "the sword of the giant."

Meissa sits high above the shoulders to mark the hunter's head. It is a multiple star system packed with hot young stars. With an apparent magnitude of 3.33, its name translates to "the shining one."

The Belt, Sword, and other gear

Beyond the four main corner stars, Orion holds many smaller groups of stars that outline his hunting gear and weapons.

The three stars of Orion's Belt

The most famous part of the constellation is Orion's Belt. This asterism consists of three bright stars lined up in a neat row: Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. During January evenings around 9:00 pm, the belt sits high across the sky along the meridian.

Mintaka: The westernmost star of the belt. It is an eclipsing binary system where giant stars orbit each other, causing the light to dip slightly every 5.7 days.
Alnilam: The middle jewel of the belt. Its name means "string of pearls" in Arabic. It is a fierce blue supergiant losing mass rapidly, shining from 1,344 light-years away.
Alnitak: The eastern star in the belt. Its name means "the girdle." It is a triple star system containing the brightest O-type star visible from Earth.

Nearby, stargazers can spot Sigma Orionis, a fascinating group of five stars bound by gravity, and the quadruple system Eta Orionis.

Orion's Sword and the Orion Nebula

Hanging right below the belt is Orion's Sword. While it looks like three simple stars to the unaided eye, the middle "star" is actually a dazzling cloud of gas called the Orion Nebula, or Messier 42. It contains the stars Theta Orionis, Iota Orionis, and 42 Orionis.

The head, club, and shield

Orion also carries weapons and protective gear across the sky:

Head: Along with Meissa, two dimmer stars named Phi1 Orionis and Phi2 Orionis make a tiny triangle for the head, near the strange young star FU Orionis.
Club: Raising his arm north of Betelgeuse, Orion holds a club made of Mu Orionis, Nu Orionis, Xi Orionis, and the twin stars Chi1 Orionis and Chi2 Orionis. Nearby is the pulsating variable star U Orionis.
Shield: Facing the charging bull Taurus, Orion holds up a shield formed by six stars labeled Pi Orionis, stretching from Pi1 Orionis to Pi6 Orionis.

Deep-sky treasures and meteor showers

A deep view revealing glowing gas like Barnard's Loop

The massive glowing ring known as the Orion–Eridanus Superbubble

Orion contains some of the most spectacular deep-sky objects in our galaxy. The whole constellation is wrapped inside the massive Orion molecular cloud complex, a giant cloud of gas hundreds of light-years across. It even connects to a colossal cosmic ring called the Orion–Eridanus Superbubble.

The great Orion Nebula and Trapezium

The Orion Nebula is one of the brightest nebulae in the sky. You can spot it without a telescope as a soft, fuzzy glow in Orion's sword. Looking through binoculars reveals glowing gas where hundreds of brand-new stars are forming.

Right in the heart of this nebula sits a tight star cluster called the Trapezium. Its four brightest stars form a small trapezoid. These baby stars are only a few hundred thousand years old. Observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory show their surfaces reach scorching temperatures up to 60,000 kelvin. Scientists have also spotted failed stars called brown dwarfs growing inside this busy nursery.

Horseheads and cosmic dust clouds

Orion is home to many other wonderful gas clouds:

Horsehead Nebula: Also known as IC 434, this famous dark nebula sits near the star Alnitak. Thick cosmic dust blocks background light, creating the silhouette of a horse's head.
Messier 78: A reflective blue nebula located 1,600 light-years away. In a small telescope, it can easily be mistaken for a fuzzy comet.
Messier 43: A glowing neighbor right next door to the Great Orion Nebula.
NGC 1999 and NGC 2174: Bright glowing clouds powered by young variable stars like V380 Orionis.
Flame Nebula and Barnard's Loop: Incredible ribbons of glowing hydrogen that show up beautifully in long-exposure photography.

The Orionid meteor shower

Every year around October 20, the night sky puts on a shooting star show called the Orionid meteor shower. These meteors seem to shoot out from the border between Orion and Gemini. Observers can often count up to 20 fast meteors every hour. These bright streaks of light are bits of space dust left behind by the famous Halley's Comet.

Legends and stories across history

Because Orion is so bright, almost every ancient culture created legends about its stars.

Greek and Roman myths

An artistic drawing of the hunter Orion

In ancient Greek mythology, Orion was a giant, supernaturally strong hunter. He was the son of Euryale and Poseidon (whom the Romans called Neptune), the god of the sea. Orion was so proud of his hunting skills that he boasted he could defeat every beast on Earth.

This boast angered Gaia, the Earth goddess, who sent a giant scorpion to challenge him. The hunter and the scorpion fought a fierce battle. To keep them apart forever, the gods placed them on opposite sides of the sky: the constellation Scorpius rises in the east just as Orion sets in the west! The ancient hero Ophiuchus stands between them holding a serpent and an antidote. Orion is celebrated in world-famous ancient poems, including Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, and poems by Horace.

Legends of the ancient East

In ancient Babylonian star catalogues, Orion was called the "True Shepherd of Anu," honoring Anu, the king of the heavens. Babylonian tablets linked Orion with the messenger god Papshukal, showing him near a sacred bird or rooster.

In ancient Egypt, people saw Orion as the great god Sah. He was closely tied to Sopdet, the goddess of the bright star Sirius, whose morning appearance signaled the flooding of the Nile on the Egyptian calendar. Sah was later connected to Osiris, while Sopdet was linked to Isis. Ancient Pyramid Texts carved into stone tombs told that a passed pharaoh would journey to the stars to join Sah in the sky.

In the Middle East, the Armenians connected Orion to their heroic founder Hayk. The constellation is mentioned three times in the Bible, such as in the Book of Job and the Book of Amos, where it is called "Kesil." In ancient Aram, people thought the constellation was connected to giant ancestors called the Nephilim.

Orion illustrated in the Persian Book of Fixed Stars from 962 AD

In traditional Arab astronomy, Orion was seen as a majestic figure named Jawza’. The name for the star Betelgeuse comes from the Arabic words yad al-Jawza’, meaning the hand of the figure. Later Arab skywatchers called the constellation al-jabbar, meaning "the giant."

In China, Orion formed one of the ancient 28 lunar mansions. The Chinese called the belt Shen, meaning three. In fact, ancient carvings on bones from the Shang dynasty show a man with three bright stars balanced on top of his head!

In India, ancient texts like the Rigveda named the constellation Mriga, the deer. Other traditions saw the stars as Nataraja, the cosmic dancing form of Shiva, while ancient carvings in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves match Orion's shape.

European folklore

Across Europe, Orion inspired many colorful tales:

Hungary: Orion was known as the "Archer" or the "Reaper." Some stories named him Nimrod, father of the legendary brothers Hunor and Magor. His belt was called the "Judge's stick."
Finland: Finnish stories named the belt "Väinämöinen's scythe" or "Väinämöinen's belt," while the sword below was called Kaleva's sword.
Scandinavia: Viking traditions called Orion's Belt the spinning distaff of the goddess Frigg or Freyja.
Siberia: The Chukchi people saw Orion as an archer whose flying arrow was the orange star Aldebaran.

Stories across the Americas

Native American nations shared wonderful stories about Orion's star patterns:

The Lakota people saw Orion's Belt as the spine of a giant bison. His ribs were Orion's rectangle, while the nearby Pleiades cluster formed the bison's head and Sirius was its tail. Another Lakota legend saw the stars as a hero named Fallen Star rescuing a chief's lost arm.
The Ojibwa and Cree peoples called Orion Mesabi or Mistâpêw, meaning the "big man." In one tale, heroes build a sacred sweat lodge, represented by Corona Borealis, to protect souls from a giant.
The Seri people of Mexico called the belt stars Hapj, imagining three wild animals: a mule deer, a pronghorn, and a bighorn sheep.
In Puerto Rico, Spain, and across Latin America, people often call the three belt stars "The Three Marys" or the "Three Wise Men."

Traditions in the Pacific

A medieval drawing of Orion from the Leiden Aratea

In Polynesia, Orion's stars formed a famous figure called Heiheionakeiki, named after a string game like cat's cradle. In the Philippines, islanders named the belt "balatik," a clever woodland trap used for hunting wild pigs.

To the Māori people of New Zealand, Orion's bright star Rigel is named Puanga. When Puanga rises along with the Pleiades in the winter dawn, it welcomes the Māori New Year celebration called Matariki. Across the Malay Archipelago, the stars guided sailors across the ocean and helped farmers in Java time their work with the plow. Because Orion appears upside down in the Southern Hemisphere, people in Australia often call the belt and sword the "saucepan."

How Orion will change in the future

This animation shows how Orion changes over 100,000 years

Stars are not completely frozen in place; they move through space over thousands of years in a process called proper motion. Orion sits along the celestial equator, but Earth's wobble, known as precession, will tilt it further south. By the year 14000, Orion will dip so low that people living in Great Britain will no longer be able to see it at night.

Even though its stars are moving, Orion's main outline will stay recognizable for a very long time. That is because giant stars like Rigel and Alnilam are hundreds of light-years away from Earth, so their motion appears very slow to us. Eventually, though, stars like Betelgeuse will explode in mighty flashes of light, changing the look of the mighty hunter forever!