The constellation Scorpio is one of the most interesting star clusters of the night sky. And although it is by and large a southern constellation, however, it can be observed in some southern and central regions of Russia. It will be best seen at the end of spring days and at the very beginning of summer.
The heart of Scorpio. Mars rival
This is perhaps the main component, because of which you should 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 entire constellation, which makes it look like its real decoration. People in ancient times turned their eyes to this star. How it appeared to the ancient Romans, is already evidenced by its name. The star Antares has a bright red light and in our night sky competes in this respect with another celestial body that has a blood-red tint, Mars. The ancient Romans called the last Ares, identifying it with war. The luminary in the constellation Scorpio seemed to them the main adversary of Ares, and therefore
got its name - Anti-Ares - Antares. That is, literally, a rival to Mars. By the way, the star Antares attracted special interest not only from the inhabitants of ancient Europe. It is known that some ceremonies of ancient Egypt were held taking into account the orientation to this star. In ancient Persia, Antares was considered one of the four royal night stars. 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 heaven.
Astronomical characteristics
The bright red color is due to the fact that the star Antares belongs to the class of red supergiants of class M. It is many times more than another famous supergiant - Betelgeuse. Its size is even hard to imagine. The Antares star 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, then its outer edge would be between
orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter, and the Earth would be swallowed by the body of a star. Interestingly, the mass of Antares is about fifteen times larger than the Sun. All this gives him luminosity, which is about ten thousand times brighter than the sun. Thanks to this, even at a distance of seven hundred light-years from planet Earth, the star Antares continues to be one of the brightest luminaries of our night sky. Interestingly, the
red giants and supergiants are the stars that are at the sunset of their lives. Once upon a time, our Sun will become the red giant - in about five billion years -. Antares - a star whose photos are watched with unbridled curiosity by astronomers and astrophysicists around the world, is one of the first contenders for a supernova - a colossal cosmic explosion that ends the life of stars. Perhaps this will happen in the coming millions of years. Or maybe this has already happened, and the light of
a supernova explosion is already rushing towards our planet, intending to illuminate Earth nights.