Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion,
approximately 860 light-years (260 pc) from Earth. It is the brightest
and most massive component of a star system of at least four stars that
appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye. A star of
spectral type B8Ia, Rigel is calculated to be anywhere from 61,500 to
363,000 times as luminous as the Sun, and 18 to 24 times as massive. Its
radius is over 70 times that of the Sun, and its surface temperature is
12,100 K. Rigel varies slightly in brightness, its apparent magnitude
ranging from 0.05 to 0.18. It is classified as an Alpha Cygni variable.
It is generally the seventh-brightest star in the night sky and is
usually the brightest star in Orion, though it is occasionally outshone
by Betelgeuse. With an estimated age of 7 to 9 million years, Rigel has
exhausted its core hydrogen fuel, expanded and cooled to become a
supergiant. It will end its life as a type II supernova.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigel>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1912:
Over 470,000 people from Ulster, Ireland, signed the Ulster
Covenant in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Covenant>
1963:
Whaam!, now considered one of Roy Lichtenstein's most important
works, debuted at an exhibition held at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New
York City.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaam!>
2014:
Hong Kong protests: Unhappy with the direction of electoral
reform, Occupy Central with Love and Peace began a civil disobedience
campaign to fight for equal suffrage.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Central_with_Love_and_Peace>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Uranian:
1. (comparable, literary, poetic) Celestial, heavenly; uranic.
2. (comparable, literary, archaic) Homosexual; (specifically) relating
to a man's erotic love for adolescent boys; pederastic; also, of poetry:
conveying appreciation for young men.
3. (not comparable, Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Of Aphrodite
Urania, the heavenly aspect of Greek goddess of beauty and love
Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart Venus: heavenly, spiritual, as
contrasted with the earthly aspect of Aphrodite Pandemos.
4. (not comparable, Greek mythology, dated) Relating to Urania, the Muse
of astronomy.
5. (not comparable, by extension, historical, rare) Of or pertaining to
astronomy; astronomical. [...]
6. (not comparable, astronomy) Of or pertaining to the planet Uranus.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Uranian>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
If every man did the little he could — what a different world!
--Evelyn Beatrice Hall
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall>