Bellatrix

 In one version of the myth Orion was the son of Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea, from whom he inherited an ability to walk on water. Orion walked across the sea to the island of Chios where he attacked the daughter of the island ruler in a drunken rage. Orion was blinded by the ruler in an act of retaliation but was later healed by Helios, the Greek personification of the sun. Orion later became arrogant with his great hunting abilities and vowed to kill every creature on the planet. The Goddess of the Earth, Gaia, responded by sending a giant scorpion to destroy him. In the ensuing battle Orion was killed and both he and the scorpion were placed amongst the stars.


About the star
Bellatrix, sometimes also known as the Amazon Star, is the third brightest star in Orion and the 27th brightest star in the sky, only slightly dimmer than Castor in Gemini. Its name comes from the Latin word for "the female warrior." It has a mean apparent magnitude of 1.64 and is approximately 240 light years distant.

Bellatrix is a hot, luminous blue-white giant star, classified as an eruptive variable. Its magnitude varies between 1.59 and 1.64. The star belongs to the spectral class B2 III. It is one of the hotter stars visible to the unaided eye. It emits about 6,400 times more light than the Sun and has eight or nine solar masses. Within a few million years, Bellatrix will become an orange giant and eventually a massive white dwarf.

Before its own variability was confirmed, Gamma Orionis was used as a standard for stellar luminosity, one against which other stars were compared and checked for variability.