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Concept
Epsilon Orionis
Résumé
Alnilam is the central star of Orion's Belt in the equatorial constellation of Orion. It has the Bayer designation ε Orionis, which is Latinised to Epsilon Orionis and abbreviated Epsilon Ori or ε Ori. This is a massive, blue supergiant star some 2,000 light-years distant. It is estimated to be 832,000 times as luminous as the Sun, and 64.5 times as massive.
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.
Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as one of the stable anchor points by which other stars are classified, for the spectral class B0Ia. Although the spectrum shows variations, particular in the H-alpha absorption lines, this is considered typical for this type of luminous hot supergiant. It is also one of the 58 stars used in celestial navigation. It is at its highest point in the sky around midnight on December 15.
It is slightly variable from magnitude 1.64 to 1.74, with no clear period, and it is classified as an α Cygni variable. Its spectrum also varies, possibly due to unpredictable changes in mass loss from the surface.
Estimates of Alnilam's properties vary. Searle and colleagues, using CMFGEN code to analyse the spectrum in 2008, calculated a luminosity of , an effective temperature of 27,500 ± 100 K and a radius of . Analysis of the spectra and age of the members of the Orion OB1 association yields a mass 34.6 times that of the Sun ( on the main sequence) and an age of 5.7 million years. A more recent detailed analysis of Alnilam across multiple wavelength bands produced very high luminosity, radius, and mass estimates, assuming the distance of 606 parsecs suggested by the Hipparcos new reduction. Adopting the larger parallax from the original Hipparcos reduction gives a distance of 412 parsecs and physical parameters more consistent with earlier publications.
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