Antares Star Facts

• Antares is 550 light years from Earth and the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius.
• Antares is a two star system consisting of the red supergiant Antares A and the much smaller but hotter Antares B.
• Antares B is ten times more massive than our sun and around 150 times brighter, but as a result of it being dwarfed by its massive parent star it cannot be viewed without the aid of a telescope.
• Antares is around 10,000 times brighter than the sun.
• Massive stars such as Antares burn their fuel extremely quickly, as a result they only exist for a few million years.
• At only around 12 million years old Antares is already nearing the end of its lifespan and is expected to explode as a supernova in the next million years.
• Low mass stars such as our sun exist in their main sequence for several billion years.
• Due to is reddish color Ancient Greeks associated the star with the planet Mars, the name Antares is Greek for "rival of Mars".

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Antares has around 850 times the radius of the sun, if it was placed in the center of our solar system it would reach beyond the orbit of Mars. Antares is estimated to have a maximum mass of around 18 times greater than that of the sun. Antares is estimated to have surface temperatures of around 3000C (5400F), around half as hot as the sun. Even though Antares is cooler than our sun its enormous size means it is around 60,000 times more luminous.

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Also Known As: Antares A, Alpha Scorpii

Distance From Earth: 550 light years

Constellation: Scorpius

Star Type: M Class Supergiant

Mass: 18 x Sun

Luminosity: 65,000 x Sun

Diameter: 735 million miles (1.2 billion km) - 850 x Sun

Temperature: Approx 3,000C (5,400F)

Age: 12 million years old

Rotation Period: Unknown

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