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The future of the Orion constellation
- Video Online only
- Title The future of the Orion constellation
- Released: 09/06/2017
- Length 00:01:12
- Language English
- Footage Type Graphic
- Copyright ESA/Gaia/DPAC , CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
- Description
This video reveals how our view of the Orion constellation will evolve over the next 450 000 years.
Amid a myriad of drifting stars, the shape of Orion as defined by its brightest stars is slowly rearranged into a new pattern as time goes by.
The portion of the sky depicted in the video measures 40 x 20º – as a comparison, the diameter of the full Moon in the sky is about half a degree.
The video is based on data from ESA's Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, as well as additional information from ground-based observations.
Full story: The future of the Orion constellation
The evolution of two million stellar positions on the entire sky is shown here
A speeded-up version of the video is available here