Since the very beginning, Star Trek has mentioned and sometimes flamboyantly shown (Susan Oliver, anyone?) the famed green-skinned aliens from somewhere in the constellation of Orion. Star Trek: Lower Decks likes to poke fun at the various Orion stereotypes, i.e., that they are all a bunch of pirates (or “animal women” being sold off by the pirates). But what about their place of origin? Is it really OK just to shrug off that they are from Orion?

Most astronomers, even the Trekkers among them, would say that Orion in general can’t really be a place of origin because its just a group of stars as seen from Earth, many of the brighter ones being at very different distances from us and each other, so it doesn’t really make sense to have a race of aliens saying they come from there, as if it were all one world or even group of worlds, that are anywhere near each other. Related to this, is the constant sci fi habit of worlds taking on names associated with Earth-bound constellations. Although one could see why Earthers would do so even after centuries of being space-faring, probably our friends (I hope!) on these other worlds would object.

But, there might be a way out. A number of stars in Orion are part of what is called an “OB Association,” a group of relatively young and very hot stars that shine blue. These stars are at similar distances (although the OB association of Orion has many sub-groups with somewhat differing ages and distances). For instance, two of the star’s of Orion’s belt, Mintaka and Alnitak, are known to be about 1200 light years from Earth. Therefore, if there were part of Orion that anyone could be ‘from’ that wasn’t already associated with a very well known star like Rigel (which already has the famed Rigel 7 featured in at least two episodes of Star Trek) or Betelguese, it would probably be somewhere in this association. That brings its own host of problems, such as how life would have evolved on planets near such young stars, but we can cast that aside for now (you lose one problem, and you gain another!).