Star Antares - red giant, the heart of Scorpio, rival of Mars

The constellation of Scorpio is one of the most interesting star clusters of the night sky. And although it is at greater expense is the southern constellation, however, it can be observed in some southern and central regions of Russia. It will be best seen at the end of the spring days and early in the summer.

Heart of Scorpio. Rival of Mars

This, perhaps, is the main component, due to which it is necessary to pay attention to the constellation. Antares is a star located right where the heart of Scorpio should be located. In addition, it is the most striking body of the whole constellation, why it looks like its real decoration. People in ancient times turned their gaze on this star. About how it seemed to the ancient Romans, already testifies to its name. Star Antares has a bright red light and in our night sky competes in this respect with another heavenly body, having a blood-red shade, Mars. The last ancient Romans called Ares, identifying him with the war. The light in the constellation Scorpio seemed to them the main opponent of Ares, Has received its name - Anti-Ares - Antares. That is, literally, rival of Mars. By the way, Antares star attracted special interest not only the inhabitants of ancient Europe. It is known that some ceremonies of ancient Egypt were held taking into account the orientation on this star. In ancient Persia, Antares was considered one of the four royal night stars. The identification directly with the heart of Scorpio came from medieval Arabs. And in medieval Europe, Antares was considered a fallen angel and one of the guards of the gates of the sky.

Astronomical characteristics

The bright red color is due to the fact that Antares star belongs to the class of red supergiants of class M. It is several times larger than another well-known supergiant - Betelgeuse. Its dimensions are even hard to imagine. The Star of Antares is more than eight hundred times larger than our Sun in diameter. If it suddenly appeared in its place, in the center of our star system, its outer edge would be between Orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter, and the Earth would be absorbed by the body of the star. Interestingly, the mass of Antares is about fifteen times the size of the Sun. All this gives him luminosity, which is about ten thousand times brighter than the solar one. Thanks to this, even being seven hundred light-years away from planet Earth, Antares star continues to be one of the brightest stars in our night sky. Interestingly, the red giants and supergiants are the stars that are at the end of their lives. Once the red giant - about five billion years - our sun will become also. Antares is a star whose photo is viewed with irrepressible curiosity by astronomers and astrophysicists around the world, is one of the first candidates for a supernova - a colossal cosmic explosion that ends the life of the stars. Perhaps it will happen in the next million years. Or maybe this has already happened, and the light of a supernova explosion is already rushing towards our planet, intending to illuminate Earth's nights.