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