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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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