The stars 'Alnitak', 'Alnilam' and 'Mintaka' form the belt of Orion. Orion's Belt is an asterism of three stars that appear about midway in the constellation 'Orion the Hunter'. The asterism is so called because it appears to form a belt in the hunter's outfit. It is one of the most famous asterisms used by amateur astronomers. The names of the three stars come from Arabic. Asterisms are patterns of stars of similar brightness. The stars may be part of a larger constellation or may be formed from stars in different constellations.

Alnitak is a triple star system at the eastern end of Orion's belt and is 1,260 light years from the Earth. Alnitak B is a 4th-magnitude B-type star which orbits Alnitak A every 1,500 years. The primary (Alnitak A) is itself a close binary, comprising Alnitak Aa (a blue supergiant) and Alnitak Ab (a blue dwarf).

Alnilam is a supergiant, approximately 2,000 light-years away from Earth and has a magnitude of 1.70. It is the 29th-brightest star in the sky and the fourth-brightest in Orion. It is 375,000 times more luminous than the Sun.

Mintaka is 1,200 light-years away and shines with magnitude 2.21. It is 90,000 times more luminous than the Sun. It is a double star. The two stars orbit around each other every 5.73 days.

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