1. The Star Rigel Stellar Research Project Due 11/23/09 Mr. Emmi’s 1 st Hour Science Anne Wampler

2. Characteristics Size: – About 78 solar radiisolar radii – About 54,249,000 kilometers – It is a supergiant.supergiant Temperature: – About twice the temperature of the sun – 11,500 kelvin (11226.85°C) at its surfacekelvin Color: – Blue-white Distance from the Sun: – about 870 light-yearslight-years Rigel

3. H-R Diagram Rigel is a blue-white supergiant.

4. Constellation Rigel is the ankle in the constellation Orion, a hunter from the Greek myths. Orion was a great hunter and honest man. Because of this, he became the companion of Artemis, goddess of the hunt. This made Artemis’ twin, Apollo, jealous and he sent an enormous scorpion to sting Orion. Artemis was angry about the death of her companion, but forgave Apollo when he helped her hang his image in the sky so that he wouldn’t be forgotten. The Greeks said that this is why the constellation of Orion is visible in the winter, but wavers and vanishes when Scorpio appears in the summer.

5. Life Cycle Birth: – Rigel was born as a high-mass protostar about 10 million years ago.protostar Current Age: – Rigel is currently 10 million years old. – This is only about 1/45 of the Sun’s 4.5 billion years of age. – It is a blue-white supergiant.supergiant Future: – Rigel will eventually cool to be a red supergiant, then explode into a supernova. supernova – Although it is large, Rigel is not massive enough to create a black hole.black hole – Rigel will probably become a neutron star or a pulsar within the next couple million yearsneutron star pulsar

6. Glossary Kelvin: a unit of temperature that equals about -272.15° Celsius. Solar Radii: a unit of measure that is equal to the current radius of the Sun; about 695,500 kilometers. Light-year: a unit of measure equal to the distance light can travel in one year; about 9,460,730,472,600 kilometers. H-R Diagram: a diagram used to classify stars and understand how they change over time. It shows the relationship between the temperature and the absolute brightness of a star. Supergiant: an extremely bright star whose diameter is more than 100 times that of the sun. Protostar: a contracting cloud of gas and dust with enough mass to become a star. Supernova: the really bright explosion of a dying supergiant star. Black Hole: an object whose gravity is so powerful that nothing, not even light, can escape. Neutron Star: the small, dense remains of a supergiant star after a supernova. Pulsar: a neutron star that spins very fast and releases radio waves. Back to CharacteristicsBack to H-R DiagramBack to Life Cycle

7. Bibliography "Rigel." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 Nov. 2009. Green, Paul J. "Star." World Book Online Reference Center. 2005. World Book, Inc. http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar52954. Sessions, Larry. "Rigel: Orion’s Brightest Star." EarthSky. 2009. http://www.earthsky.org/tonightpost/brightest-stars/blue-white-rigel-is-orions- brightest-star. Kahler, Jim. "Rigel." STARS. 1998. University of Illinois. http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/Rigel.html. D’aulaire, Ingri & Edgar. D’auliares’ Book of Greek Myths. United States: Doubleday, 1962. Pasachoff, Jay M. Prentice Hall Science Explorer: Astronomy. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.