Bryant Jakeman

Professor David Bierman

Physics 1040
12/1/2012

Discussion
Together as a group we decided to learn more about the different stars that make up the
constellation of Orion. Everyone picked a different star and researched its luminosity, brightness,
class, temperature distance and radius. We learned about stars such as Rigel, Betelgeuse,
Bellatrix, and Saiph.
For example the star I chose to research was Rigel. I learned that it has 120,000 the
luminosity of our sun, its temperature is at a whopping 12,100 Kelvin and it lies 860 light years
away (or 260 parsecs if you so choose.). It is the brightest star in the constellation and the
seventh brightest star in the night sky!
I never realized how different other stars were in comparison to our sun. It makes me
realize how small our sun is compared to the other stars in our galaxy. For example Betelgeuse
has 1200 times the radius of our yellow star! That is massive, especially when you consider that
the suns mass is bigger than everything else in our solar system combined. Including Jupiter!
Comparing all these different stars really put in perspective how diverse our universe is.
There are so many sizes, shapes, temperatures at all different quadrants of space. I cant wait
until we have the technology to learn more about the planets that orbit these different stars!