When we look up towards the stars, some constellations have stars appearing very close to each other from our perspective on Earth. Does this necessarily mean that these stars are really close to each other in space?
Not at all! Constellations are in fact nothing special – just stars which ancient astronomers thought form particular shapes in the sky, and which make it easy for astronomers to find their way around the sky itself.
The three major stars forming Orion’s belt are actually around 800, 900 and 1,900 light years away
Taking the famous Orion constellation into consideration, the red giant star Betelgeuse is found around 600 light years away from Earth, but the apparently nearby (as seen from Earth) star Bellatrix is around 250 light years from Earth.
The three major stars forming Orion’s belt, appearing to be very close to each other from Earth, are actually around 800, 900 and 1,900 light years away respectively.