The constellation Scorpio is one of the most interesting star clusters in the night sky. And although it is by and large a southern constellation, however, it can also 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.
Heart of Scorpio. Rival of Mars
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. In addition, it is the brightest body of the entire constellation, which makes it look like its real decoration. People in ancient times turned their eyes to this star. The way it was presented 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 regard with another celestial body that has a blood-red tint, Mars. The ancient Romans called the latter Ares, identifying it with war. The luminary in the constellation Scorpio seemed to them the mainopponent of Ares, which is why
got its name - Anti-Ares - Antares. That is, literally, the rival of Mars. By the way, the star Antares attracted particular interest not only from the inhabitants of ancient Europe. It is known that some of the ceremonies of ancient Egypt took place 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 the medieval Arabs. And in medieval Europe, Antares was considered a fallen angel and one of the guardians 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 larger than another well-known supergiant - Betelgeuse. Its size is even hard to imagine. The star Antares is more than eight hundred times larger than our Sun in diameter. If it suddenly appeared in its place, at 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 absorbed by the body of a star. Interestingly, the mass of Antares is about fifteen times that of the Sun. All this gives it a luminosity, which is about ten thousand times brighter than the sun. Thanks to this, even being at a distance of seven hundred light years from the planet Earth, the star Antares continues to be one of the brightest luminaries in our night sky. Interestingly, red giants and supergiants are stars that are in the twilight of their lives. Once reda giant - in about five billion years - will be our Sun. Antares - a star whose photo is looked at with irrepressible curiosity by astronomers and astrophysicists all over 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 next million years. Or maybe it has already happened, and the light of a supernova explosion is already rushing towards our planet, intending to illuminate the Earth's nights.
