The History Of Orion's Belt

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Orion’s Belt is home to some of the most famous stars in our sky. Some of the major civilizations, such as the Babylonians, the Egyptians, and even the Greek, have different stories for Orion’s Belt. In Greece, they say the Greek hunter Orion was killed by a Scorpion. Also, in Egypt, Orion’s Belt was a symbol, known to many, of the God-Pharoah Osiris. These are just a few of the legends known to tell the background of Orion’s Belt.
Orion’s Belt contains three stars, Mintaka, Alnilam, and Alnitak. These names have an Arabic background. Mintaka means belt. Alnilam means “a belt of pearls”. Alnitak means the girdle. These stars have been said to be created around the same time by one of the nebulas found in the Orion constellation.
The first star, Mintaka, is a white-blue Supergiant. Its distance is said to be eight hundred light years from Earth. It is the farthest West in Orion’s Belt when looking from Earth. This star is ten thousand times brighter than our sun. Its surface temperature is a soaring sixty thousand degrees Celsius. Its mass is twenty times greater than our sun’s.
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