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Alnilam is the middle and brightest of the three stars of Orion's Belt. It is the 29th-brightest star in the sky (the fourth brightest in Orion) and is a blue supergiant. Together with Mintaka and Alnitak, the three stars make up Orion's Belt, known by many names across many ancient cultures. Alnilam is the middle star.
Orion's Belt is an asterism in the constellation of Orion.Other names include the Belt of Orion, the Three Kings, and the Three Sisters. [1] The belt consists of three bright and easily identifiable collinear star systems – Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka – nearly equally spaced in a line, spanning an angular size of ~ 140′ (2.3°).
The system is located at a distance of several hundred parsecs from the Sun and is one of the three main stars of Orion's Belt along with Alnilam and Mintaka. The primary star , Alnitak Aa, is a hot blue supergiant with an absolute magnitude of −6.0 and is the brightest class O star in the night sky with a visual magnitude of +2.0.
Alnitak and Mintaka are both about 1,200 light years away while central Alnilam is almost twice as far at 2,000 light years. Alnilam is one of the farthest stars you can see with the naked eye.
Orion, named after the mythical Greek huntsman, can be easily located by finding Orion’s “belt,” which is three bright stars — Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak — in a straight line.
Orion's seven brightest stars form a distinctive hourglass-shaped asterism, or pattern, in the night sky. Four stars—Rigel, Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, and Saiph—form a large roughly rectangular shape, at the center of which lies the three stars of Orion's Belt—Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. His head is marked by an additional 8th star called ...
Alnilam: ε: 46: 37128: 26311: 05 h 36 m ... component of the Alnitak system; suspected variable Saiph: ... component of the Mintaka system; suspected variable HD ...
Alnitak on the Great Pyramid of Giza; Alnilam on the pyramid of Khafre; Mintaka on the pyramid of Menkaure; The Orion correlation theory is a fringe theory in Egyptology attempting to explain the arrangement of the Giza pyramid complex.