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Author: WeAreAllKosh

Dec 26th 2012 at 6:29:48 PM

^^^^^^^ (@robinjohnson)
Excellent point about that--oftentimes authors forget that space is three-dimensional, and that stars that look close to each other in our line of sight can be very far apart and entirely unrelated in "real space".

However, some uses of "Orion" may refer to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_OB1_Association Orion OB1 Association]], of which many of the blue supergiants of the constellation (Rigel, Saiph, and all three belt stars among them) belong. They are still a few hundred light years apart from each other (and all of them at least several hundred light years from Earth), but part of the same "association" of hot blue stars which originated in the same area--sort of like a gigantic supercluster itself hundreds of light years across. So a reference to "Orion" ''could'' mean that actual region of space in ''three'' dimensions--and note that Betelgeuse and Bellatrix, two very prominent stars in the ''constellation'', are ''not'' members of this physical association of stars, and are considerably closer to us than they are.