Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It has the Bayer designation β Orionis, which is Latinized to Beta Orionis and abbreviated Beta Ori or β Ori. Rigel is the brightest and most massive component – and the eponym – of a star system of at least four stars that appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye. This system is located at a distance of approximately 860 light-years (260 pc) from the Sun.
Orion, with Rigel at bottom right, at optical wavelengths plus the Hα (hydrogen-alpha) spectral line to emphasize gas clouds
Rigel A and Rigel B as they appear in a small telescope
Rigel and reflection nebula IC 2118 in Eridanus. Rigel B is not visible in the glare of the main star.
Orion illustrated in a copy of Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars. The foot on the left is annotated rijl al-jauza al-yusra, the Arabic name from which Rigel is derived.
Supergiants are among the most massive and most luminous stars. Supergiant stars occupy the top region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram with absolute visual magnitudes between about −3 and −8. The temperature range of supergiant stars spans from about 3,400 K to over 20,000 K.
The four brightest stars in NGC 4755 are blue supergiant stars, with a red supergiant star at the centre. (ESO VLT)
The disc and atmosphere of Betelgeuse (ESO)
RS Puppis is a supergiant and Classical Cepheid variable.