Betelgeuse
Related Category: Astronomy: Stars
(bēt´əlj
z´´), bright star in the constellation
Orion; Bayer designation &agr; Orionis; 1992 position R.A. 5
h54.8
m, Dec. +7°24&minut;. A red supergiant with a luminosity about 13,000 times that of the sun, it is of
spectral class M2 Iab. Betelgeuse is a semiregular
variable star with apparent
magnitude ranging from 0.06 to 0.75; thus, at maximum brightness it is one of the 10 brightest stars in the sky. Betelgeuse marks the right shoulder of Orion; its distance is about 500 light-years.
