Constellation of Orion: what is it?

The constellation ofOrion is one of the most beautiful constellations in the sky. He is also called the Orion Hunter. In the sky, it is easily recognized by the three aligned stars which represent its belt. These are Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Above, two stars represent his shoulders. On the left (view from Earth), the bright Betelgeuse. It’s a red supergianta star at the end of its life 600 times larger than the Sun and 14 times more massive. It should be one of the next stars that Earthlings will be able to see explode (supernova) in a few centuries or millennia. The other shoulder is marked with the star Bellatrix.

Under the three stars of the belt, we have the knees and the legs represented, on the left, by Saïph, and on the right, by Rigel. The latter, with a bluish glow, is a young and vigorous star, double, and very hot. She is the brightest of this constellation which reigns over the sky ofwinter.

Fainter stars form what looks like an arc to Orion’s right in the sky. He holds in this hand (the left for Orion), a skin of Lion. In the other hand, he brandishes a bronze club. The stars that draw her are above Betelgeusein the direction of Gemini.

Below Orion’s belt we have his dagger. It is punctuated with small aligned stars. In the past, long before the light pollution make the stars “disappear”, it was possible to noticeeye bare the pale spot inside this dagger. it’s about the orion nebula, very famous, and also designated Messier 42 (M 42). This cloud of gas and dust that looks small when viewed from Earth is actually gigantic: it spans about 24 light years 1,400 light years from us. thousands ofstars are being born there, some having already begun to shine while others are still embryonic, buried in their cocoons gas. The orion nebula is actually the most visible part of a huge structure: the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC). It is one of the closest to our Solar system.

The constellation of Orion in mythology

This constellation that we call Orion is of Greek origin. In mythology, he is depicted there as a proud hunter who is not afraid of anything. The Babylonians saw with the same stars a shepherd, the Hindus and also the Aztecs, a warrior, the Egyptians, the god Osiris…

In the sky, two dogs accompanying him: the Little Dog and the Big Dog. This one holds in its mouth the sparkling Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. Not far from there, a hare frolics in the sky.

Orion is a giant who is said to have been born from the seed of Zeus andHermes put in a bull’s skin which was then buried in the Earth (Orion comes from the Greek ourin which means to urinate). A present from the gods to their host Hyriea, king of Thebes in Boeotia, who was sorry not to be able to have children.

The stories about Orion are multiple. The most famous tells that he was called by Oenopion (“wine drinker”), son of Dionysos and Ariadne, to exterminate the fearsome serpents which sowed terror in the mountains of the island of Chios of which he was the king. Without difficulty, the giant acquitted himself of this task. Back at the palace, a feast was given in his honor. But drunk, Orion wanted to abuse Merope, the sovereign’s daughter. Disgraced and furious, Oenopion gouged out the eyes of the hunter sleeping on the plain with his sword.

Orion recovered his sight despite everything with the help of Hepahaïstos who entrusted his servant Cédalion to him. He returned to the island of Chios to take revenge, but after talking with a shepherd, he gave up. Walking in the sea, his head protruding from the water, he met Artemis on the island of Crete. In one momentum of pride, he told her one day that“no being can escape my hunting weapons”. His words were too much… and unleashed the wrath of the mother goddess Gaia. She brought out of the bowels of the Earth, a giant scorpion. From the fight, the great hunter did not emerge victorious. He died stung by the sting of the Scorpion. At Artemis’ request, Zeus then put it in the sky as well as the scorpion… but not at the same time: when one rises, the other goes to bed.