Meissa is the hot blue star at Orion’s head, the brightest member of a young cluster wrapped in a wide ring of gas and dust that its own light has helped to clear.
At a glance
| type | blue star (class O) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 1,100 light-years (337 pc) |
| its light left it | 1,100 years ago |
| luminosity | 184,000 × the Sun |
| radius | 8.5 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 41,000 K |
| constellation | Orion (Hunter) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Meissa
Meissa is an extremely hot blue star, massive and young, many times the Sun’s size and enormously brighter. It is the brightest of a small young cluster, and its ultraviolet light ionises the gas around it, lighting a broad, faint glow.
Around the cluster lies a wide ring of dust and gas, thought to be the remains of the cloud the stars formed from, pushed outwards by their light and winds and perhaps by an old supernova. In the figure Meissa marks Orion’s head, above Betelgeuse and Bellatrix.
What you see in the piece
From Earth Meissa is a small triangle of faint stars for a head; flown out to, it lies well behind Bellatrix, and the head no longer sits on the shoulders.
Measured or modelled
Whether a supernova helped carve the ring around Meissa is inferred, not observed; it is one explanation among several.
Questions
Where is Meissa in Orion?
Meissa marks Orion’s head, a small group of faint stars above Betelgeuse and Bellatrix.