From Earth, Orion’s Belt appears as a simple straight line of three bright stars. But in reality, these points of light are massive blue supergiant stars located over 1,000 light-years away. The three stars — Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka — are each many times larger and more luminous than our Sun, producing enormous amounts of energy. Because of their size and short life span, astronomers study them to better understand how massive stars evolve. Their famous straight-line appearance is due to E

The Violent Deaths of Giant Blue Stars May Spawn Exotic Matter

Blue-white Rigel is Orion’s brightest star