RIGEL AND BETELGEUSE

Roberto Bartali

The constellation of Orion (the Hunter) contains two giant stars: Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis)
and Rigel (beta Orionis). Both are very bright objects, we perceive them as a first
magnitude star.
The first star I will describe is
Betelgeuse. The real name is "Ibt al
Jouzah", but there are many different
names and description for this star,
because the constellation was known
by many ancient cultures both in
Europe, America and Africa.
It is a cool red supergiant star of class
M2 Ia, and the superficial temperature
is 3,500 K; there are many stars like it,
a good example is Antares (alpha
Scorpius). Betelgeuse is not on the
Main Sequence curve of the HR
diagram, but is on the right, this means
that it is at the end of the evolution of a
low mass star. When it was on the
Orion Constellation with star names. main sequence, it was not much
From: http://home-
3.worldonline.nl/~ppsmeets/Sterrenbeelden/Orion/Orion.gif different to our Sun, and in a few
billion years our star will be a red
supergiant too ending it life expelling its outer envelope forming a planetary nebula. Not far
from now, we can see the planetary nebula around Betelgeuse.
Even when it is a very luminous star, its mass is not very large. We know that the
luminosity of a star depends
on the gravity at the surface,
so g=GM/RR (g=gravity, G
universal gravitation constant,
M=mass, RR= square of
radius) really the mass of
supergiant are low, but the
radius is very large, so g is
very low, then the gas
experiment a very low
pressure and can escape off
from the star.
The visual magnitude of
Betelgeuse is variable in
irregular manner from 0.4 to
The constellation of Orion and the image of the star Alpha Orionis 1.3.
(Betelgeuse)
From: http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~fringwal/betelgeuse.gif

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 Only a few constellations has a
pair of bright stars of same
magnitude.
Gemini and Orion are 2 of that
kind, and they have in
common that star alpha is less
bright then beta. Maybe when
it was classified the magnitude
was near the minimum.
Searching in my library I find
a value for the magnitude from
0.4 to 0.7 depending on the
book and the year of
publication.
The spectral type is M2. the
spectrum present lines from titanium
The photosphere of Betelgeuse. oxide.
From: http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/YBA/HTCas-
size/betelgeuse.html
The titanium combined with oxygen
form a molecule of titanium oxide which
absorbs efficiently photons at visible
wavelength.
This rises some questions: If the star is M2, so most of the energy came out in the red and
IR region of the spectrum, why it is more visible in UV light? Maybe, is the presence of a
wide calcium line ( 422.7 nm, corresponding to blue violet color, near UV ) in spectra the
reason why we can see a greater Betelgeuse in UV light then in visible light. Right?
If the titanium oxide absorbs most of the light in visible spectrum, is this the reason for the
relative low magnitude for such a giant star? Betelgeuse is one of a few variable stars we
can see with naked eye, and the only one of the first mag. The first star resolved optically
was Betelgeuse, the HST take a picture of the star photosphere in UV light in 1995.
the luminosity is much more than of the sun and the size is more than the sun too.( some
400 times the sun radius and 20,000 times the sun luminosity) The distance of the star is
about 520 ly, the angular size is 0.044 arcseconds. This angular size is more than the
resolution of most big telescope on earth, 5 meter aperture or bigger can theoretically
resolve the disc, but refraction, pollution, turbulence, and other factor reduce the resolving
power to a value less then the angular size of the star. Only HST in space can resolve such a
disc (with much less diameter telescope). Perhaps the VLT on Cerro Paranal (Chile) can
resolve the disc, because is one of the better place on earth for atmosphere stability.
The great luminosity is due to the enormous size of the star, not to the energy emitted
because it is a cool star. There are a few stars close to Betelgeuse, but it is not clear if they
are companions. The star is at a critical point in his history, close to de beginning of the end,
it is on the final evolution of a giant. The pulsation observed in Betelgeuse, probably is due
to the conflict between the burning of de He and the burning of de H, sometimes one
energy is greater than the other.

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Now is the turn of Rigel.
Rigel is the beta of Orion, a bright star of visual mag=0.18, one of the most bright in the
sky (7 ranked). the former name, as Betelgeuse came from Arabic, is "Rijl Jauzah al yusra".
So it is the brightest star of Orionis. The value of the
visual magnitude varies as the author and the catalog
(as for Betelgeuse) from 0.34 to 0.18, but the latest
could be better because was measured by Hipparcos.
The spectral type is B8 Ia, white blue color, is a very
A picture of Rigel, beta Orionis showing its blue-white
color typical of a very hot massive and young star.
From: http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect20/A5a.html

hot supergiant some 12,000 to 15,000K. the spectra

of this type of str present lines of Ca II, H I, O II, Si
II and MgII. Rigel is a young star, in this phase of
star life, predominate ionized atoms.
It is one of the most luminous star in the galaxy, the absolute magnitude is varies from -
6.69 to -7.1 depending on books. the distance of Rigel is 773 ly, so if we put Rigel at the
same distance of Alpha Cen, the brightness would be so high that could be capable to
generate a shadow of an object illuminated by the star. Rigel is a multiple star system. Rigel
B is a b type star too, of mag. 6.7, at a distance of 9", but this star is already a double, but
very close, so difficult to see in
telescopes less than 100 cm in aperture.
The star has a mass about 50 times
then the mass of sun, so it ´s life is very
different to the life of a star like
Betelgeuse.
Supergiants like Rigel, leave the main
sequence of the HR diagram soon, and
go to the right on the supergiant region.
The nucleus increase in density quickly.
After burning all the H, is the time for
a nucleus of He, then one of C, next O,
next Si and finally Fe. After the star die
as a supernova, the process to convert
H to He for a massive star like Rigel
take place in a different way than for
A beautiful image of the Orion
Constellation, we can see easily the red-
orange star Betelgeuse on the upper left
and the bright blue-white star Rigel on the
bottom right.
From:
http://www.imakinaria.com/archives/orion
.jpg

less massive stars like Betelgeuse. The

process start with C that generate N that generate O and finally decays to N again and
fusion with a proton generate a He nucleus and C, and start again.

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References:

• Karttunen et al., Fundamental Astronomy, 2000, Springer

• Burnham R., Burnham´s Celestial Handbook, 1978, Dover Publications
• Freedman R, Kaufmann III W, Universe, 2002, Freeman ed..