Distance to Orion (2011)
We see the constellation of Orion as just a 2D projection on the night sky, and it is
easy to imagine that all the stars are at the same distance from us. But, as this
schematic shows, this is not true. The closest star, Bellatrix, is around 240
light-years away, while the furthest one is Meissa, at 1300 light-years, about the
same distance from here to the Orion nebula. Indeed, the closest stars in Orion are
actually nearer to the Sun than they are to the most distant members of the
constellation.
