Short answers, pulled from the story.
Rigel is a blue supergiant star located in the equatorial constellation Orion, at a distance of approximately 850 light-years from Earth. It has a spectral type of B8Ia and a surface temperature of 12,100 Kelvin.
Astronomer Johann Bayer assigned Rigel the beta designation in 1603, likely during a rare interval when the variable star Betelgeuse temporarily outshone it. Bayer also ordered stars within magnitude classes from north to south rather than strictly by brightness, which placed Betelgeuse above Rigel.
The Rigel system has at least four confirmed components. Rigel A is the primary; Rigel B is a spectroscopic binary (components Ba and Bb) with an orbital period of 9.86 days; Rigel C orbits Rigel B with a period of about 63 years; and a possible fourth star was noted by Sherburne Wesley Burnham in 1878.
Rigel is estimated to be anywhere from 61,500 to 363,000 times as luminous as the Sun, depending on the distance estimate and modeling method used. The wide range reflects ongoing uncertainty about Rigel's precise distance.
Rigel is expected to end its life as a Type II supernova, and would reach an apparent magnitude of around -11 at peak brightness, roughly equivalent to a quarter Moon. The explosion would leave behind either a neutron star or a black hole.
The name Rigel derives from the Arabic Rijl Jauzah al Yusra, meaning the left leg or foot of the figure known as Jauzah, the Arabic name for Orion. The earliest known written record of the name appears in the Alphonsine tables of 1521.