Rigel is the blue-white supergiant that marks Orion’s foot. Although it looks like a single star to the eye, it is the luminous primary of a multiple-star system.
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Scale Comparison
Betelgeuse vs Rigel
Explore the scaleBetelgeuse's visible disk is about 10 times wider than Rigel's.
Shared physical scale
688million km
Betelgeuse’s quoted photospheric diameter is about ten times Rigel’s, although both stars have extended atmospheres.
Rigel is a hot blue supergiant; Betelgeuse is a cooler red supergiant with a far more expanded envelope. Their similar prominence in Orion does not imply similar physical size.
Objects
Object details and sources
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant nearing the end of its stellar life. Its dramatic dimming in 2019 and 2020 turned out to be caused by a dusty veil ejected from the star, giving astronomers a rare direct look at how giant stars shed material into space.
Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.