Rigel puts out about 40,000 times the energy of the Sun.Īn even more extreme example of a blue star is the blue supergiant Eta Carinae, located about 8,000 light-years away in the Carina constellation. The temperature of Rigel is approximately 11,000 Kelvin it’s this high temperature that accounts for Rigel’s color. Astronomers calculate that Rigel is approximately 700 and 900 light-years away, and yet it appears almost as bright as a star like Sirius which is only 8.3 light-years away. Whether a star has 10 times the mass of the Sun or 150 solar masses, it’s going to appear blue to our eyes.Īn example of a blue star is the familiar Rigel, the brightest star in the constellation Orion and the 6th brightest star in the sky. Blue stars are stars that have at least 3 times the mass of the Sun and up. And for a star, the only thing that defines the temperature of a star is its mass. The coolest stars appear red, while the hottest stars are blue. The color of a star comes from its temperature. Blue stars are made of the same stuff as all the other stars in the Universe they’re about 75% hydrogen and 24% helium with trace amounts of other elements. Some are white, others yellow or red, and some are blue. Spend any time watching the night sky and you’ll soon recognize that stars have different colors.

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