Rigel

Its story

Rigel blazes as a blue supergiant at Orion's foot, one of the brightest beacons of the winter sky. Its searing white light travels 863 years to reach us: what shines tonight above the horizon left the star when medieval cathedrals were still rising stone by stone across Europe. The name comes from the Arabic «riǧl al-jabbār», 'the foot of the giant', preserved by the astronomers who mapped Orion the hunter centuries ago.