Bowen Zheng
ASTR 203
Instructor: Thomas A. Fleming
3/14/2014
The Star: Mintaka
Abstract
This paper discusses the star Mintaka which is among the stars of the Northern Hemisphere. Mintaka is an immense blue star in the constellation Orion. Among the world’s brightest stars, Mintaka is ranked as the 74th brightest. It is positioned 900 light years away, shining at an apparent visual magnitude of 2.25. Mintaka is a constituent of a multiple-star system. It is traveling through the Galaxy at a speed of 18.6 km/s relative to the Sun. past studies have also proven that the star was once associated with a life supporting planet which later diminished. It is therefore worth finding out more about this star to get the possibility of accessing such planets so that the congested earth can be less overburdened inn future by the rapidly growing population.
Key Words: Orion, Mintaka, and Planet
Introduction
Historically, the entire heavenly bodies were regarded as stars by astronomers. In addition the only known ‘stars’ were the 9 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The terminology ‘stars’ was later coiled to comprise of stars, planets, comets, meteors among others. However, as time went by, astronomers were able to differentiate stars from the rest of heavenly bodies. Of particular interest are the Stars of the Northern Hemisphere. These stars, especially the major three: Alnitak, Mantaka and Alnilam are the main constellations that can be observed in many days of the year from Europe, Canada, the United States and Asia.
Humanity tends to identify with the stars with each individual having an interest with a peculiar star. The process of choosing a star has been lengthy and time consuming due to the interest in the topic. According to Schaaf, each star seems to portray some unique history which is amazing and interesting, most stars have some distinct features and fantastic history; each of them is of equal importance (12). Amongst the stars whish have been of key interest to persons are proper, Bayer, Flamsteed and Catalog. However, I have personally developed a liking for star Mintaka which my lecturer also permitted me to tackle. Therefore, this research paper will focus on this particular star, giving a detailed description of its characteristics.
According to Lisle, Delta Orionis is made up of different stars. The three recognizable stars are: the Mintaka which means ‘belt’, Alnilam meaning ‘a belt of pearls’ and Alnitak which means ‘girdle’ (6). The three are believed to have formed from the system nebulas in the Orion constellation. The stars form a row, Mintaka is to the west, alnilam is at the centre and alnitak is to the east. Among the three, alnilam is the brightest followed by Mintaka and finally alnitak (Ashland Astronomy studio, n.p).
Mintaka is at around 900 light years away from the earth, with a surface temperature of 60,000 Degrees Celcius. The star is super giant with a white blue color and is the seventh brightest star in the Orion belt (Schaaf 14). Mintaka is 10,000 times brighter than the sun in our solar system. Its mass is 20 times that of the sun. In comparison with Alnilam and Alnitak, it is the second brightest star. The star is binary appearing in class B giant and a smaller version class (Ashland Astronomy studio, n.p). The table below illustrates then various properties of the star.
Table 1: properties of Mintaka (Source: Ashland Astronomy Studio)
Property Description of quantity
Right ascension 05h32m00.400s
Declination -00017’56.74’’
Apparent magnitude(v) 2.23(3.2/3.3)/6.85/14.0
Radial velocity (Rv) 16 km/s
Proper motion (µ) RA:0.64+- 0.56mas/yr
Dec.: -0.69+-0.27 mas/yr
Parallax(π) 4.71+- 0.58 m
Distance Approx. 690 ly
(approx. 210 pc)
Mass 202 M
Radius 15.83 R
Luminosity 900002 L
Surface gravity(log g) 3.53 cgs
Temperature 31,802+-4183
Age 3-6 Myr
Many stories have been told about the planet. It is believed that Mintaka once hosted a blue planet known as Artuvia. Life in Artuvia was perfect, there was clear and good quality water, and the land was ever green. According to Kaler, the weather was always warm and pleasant; it was a planet full of light (56). The planet was covered with water and there existed submarine life. However, at one point, the planet became barren and uninhabitable and all the lives found another place to live.
Freudenrich discussed how the planet is formed through molecular reaction of hydrogen and dust particles (40). Hydrogen first fuses in the core due to gravitational force to form helium. After the fusion of all hydrogen in the core to helium, the helium starts fusing due to the high temperatures to form atoms of heavier elements like silicon or carbon. Freudenrich added that this process goes on until iron is formed, after the formation of iron in the core; the process stops because iron cannot fuse any more (42). The star eventually collapses by its own gravity as the iron core heats up tremendously.
As the core heats up, its core turns into a tightly packed one, with its protons and electrons merging to make a neutron. All this happens within a flash of a second. Due to this reaction, the previously earth-sized iron core shrinks down to a neutron core, radius six miles, crushing it further as it glows to an admirable blue light (Ashland Astronomy studio, n.p).
The crushed core then heats up to a billion degrees centigrade, and eventually explodes up, a process referred to as supernova. This leads to the immediate release of a large amount of energy as well as material into the space. The shock wave that results from the explosion, that is the supernova, is enough to initiate a star formation in other interstellar clouds, while the remains form a dimly-lit neutron star (Freudenrich 42).
It has also been proven that the star is far from the planet earth that it would take years just to reach there. We can use available information about other known stars to estimate the time that a given space shuttle would take from planet earth to the Mintaka planet (Kaler 57). For instance, taking the closest star, alpha centauri which is about 4.3 light years away from the earth’s surface, then, a space shuttle travelling at an average speed of 18000 miles per hour would take 1.4 billion hours, which amounts to around 160202 years. Therefore, taking some simple arithmetic will estimate the time required by such a star travelling at the same speed, about 33,530,651 years
In sum, the aforementioned characteristics of the star Mintaka makes it similar to other heavenly bodies such as Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter. Thus it has been associated with good fortune. It is also evident that it is both physically and technically next to impossible to travel to Mintaka. For instance, the amount of fuel that would be required is out of reach, not forgetting the technological, metallurgical, and financial and other such concerns would be inevitable
Works Cited
Freudenrich, Craig. “How Stars Work.” How Stuff Works. Np, nd Web 11 (2013).
Kaler, James B. “Delta Orionis.” The Hundred Greatest Stars (2002): 56-57.
Lisle, Jason. “Blue Stars Confirm Recent Creation.” Acts & Facts 41.9 (2012): 16.
‘Mintaka (HIP 25930)’. Ashland Astronomy studio. Ashland Astronomy Studio, n.d. Web. 17 March. 2014.
Schaaf, Fred. “The Pattern-Filling Stars of Winter.” (1999).
