hip-29434

Its story

69 Orionis is a blue Be star of class B5Vn in the celestial hunter, around 530 light-years away, sitting just to the north of Xi Orionis. It spins on its axis at 285 km/s, more than half its critical break-up speed, enough to flatten and visibly warp it; for years it carried a gaseous disc that vanished in November 1982, returning the star to a plain B-type profile with no emission.