Exploring Antares: The Heart of Scorpius

Antares, also known as Alpha Scorpii, is a red supergiant star of spectral type M1 and the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius. One of the largest stars ever observed, Antares lies approximately 600 light-years from Earth and spans several hundred times the diameter of the Sun. Its name comes from the ancient Greek Anti-Ares, meaning “rival of Ares”, a reference to its striking red hue, which rivals that of the planet Mars in the night sky.

Antares in Scorpius
IAU and Sky & Telescope magazine (Roger Sinnott & Rick Fienberg) / CC
Photo was taken by the Japanese astrophotographer Akira Fujii and shows a full view of the constellation of Scorpius which is very close to the Milky Way. Credit: Akira Fujii
Antares image captured by ESO
Astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer to capture the most detailed image ever of a star. This effort also produced the first-ever velocity map of stellar material in a star’s atmosphere beyond our Sun, uncovering surprising turbulence in Antares’s vast outer layers. Source: ESO site

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