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The Night Acorn Tree
Southern Hemisphere Skies, New Zealand

ANTARES!

Antares, a fantastically cool, red supergiant, and yes, it glows a dynamic red colour in the sky. It's in the constellation of Scorpius. Magnificent!

Antares is about 604 light-years away. It is 9,000 times more luminous and about 700 times the diameter of our Sun. If our solar system were centered on Antares, the orbit of the Earth would easily fit within this star.


However, the overall density of Antares is less than one-millionth that of the Sun. Antares is also relatively cool as stars go, only about 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit (3,600 Celsius), compared to roughly 11,000 degrees F (6000 C) for the Sun. Its low temperature accounts for the star's red color.

Antares has a small, very hot companion, bluish-white in color. The smaller star has also been described appearing as "a little spark of glittering emerald" because of its proximity and contrast to red Antares. The pair orbit each other over a span of nearly 900 years, separated by a distance of about 500 times Earth's distance from the Sun. WOW!!

Here's a nice close-up chart of Scorpius.

composition copyright The Oracle 2002