Saturday, October 2, 2010

Pretty Picture



This is a close-up picture of the star Rigel, which sits on the left foot of the constellation Orion. Rigel is a so-called "blue supergiant," since it is so hot that its peak is in the ultraviolet. If our sun was replaced with Rigel, the star would fill up almost half the sky, and the sunlight would be 70,000 times brighter.