BETELGEUSE

one of the fixed stars in the constellation of Orion, It is also known as Alpha Or i on is. It is notable for the experiments carried on by Prof. Albert A. Michel son of Chicago University, to ascertain its dimensions. He found that Betelgeuse is slightly more than 300 times the diameter of the sun and nearly as large as the entire orbit of the planet Mars. These experiments were carried on in 1920 by means of a device invented by Profe or Michel son for determining the actual diameter of the star. The diameter of Betelgeuse was found to be 260 million miles, or 27 million times as large as the sun in volume. Its distance from the earth is about 150 ‘light years’, with light able tg at the rate of 186,000 miles a second.