On Wednesday July 17th 2024 if the sky is clear it will be possible to see a bright red star just to the right of the Moon. This is the star Antares, the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius the Scorpion.
In mythology it was the Scorpion that killed Orion the Hunter. While Orion was boasting to a large crowd of people of all the animals he had killed he did not see the little scorpion creep up behind him. The scorpion stung him on the ankle and killed him. However the gods were so impressed with Orion’s boasting that he was placed in the sky forever as was the Scorpion. To make sure that they could never meet again Orion was placed in the winter sky while we find the scorpion in the summer sky.
Antares is a red supergiant star which is so big that all the planets out to the orbit of Mars could fit inside the star if it was placed where our Sun is. Antares is around 550 light years away, this means that the light travelling at the speed of light left Antares about the year 1474.
You will notice that Antares looks red, in fact it is often known as the Rival of Mars because of its red colour. The colours of stars tell astronomers how hot or cool a star is. Stars that are blue or white in colour are much hotter than stars that are orange or red in colour.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
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