Antares facts for kids
Antares is a very big, bright star in our Milky Way galaxy. It's known as a red supergiant, which means it's a huge red star, much bigger than our Sun. You can often see Antares shining brightly in the night sky. It's usually listed as one of the top 15 or 16 brightest stars we can see. Its scientific name is Alpha Scorpii (α Scorpii).
Antares is the brightest and heaviest star in a group called the Scorpius-Centaurus Association. This group has thousands of stars that are all around 11 million years old.
Antares also has a smaller partner star, called Antares B. Scientists don't know much about Antares B yet. They are still studying how it moves around Antares. They think it takes a very long time, possibly over a thousand years, for Antares B to complete one orbit.
How Big is Antares?
Antares is truly enormous! Its radius (the distance from its center to its edge) is about 680 to 800 times bigger than the Sun's radius. This means Antares has a diameter (distance across) of about 947 million to 1.114 billion kilometers.
To imagine its size, think about our solar system. If Antares were placed where our Sun is, its outer edge would reach past the orbit of Mars. It would even be inside the asteroid belt, which is a ring of rocks between Mars and Jupiter.
Antares is very far away from Earth. It is about 550 light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year. Its visible light is about 10,000 times brighter than the Sun's. When you count all the energy it gives off, including heat (infrared light), Antares is about 65,000 times brighter than the Sun. This giant star also has a lot of material in it. Its mass is about 15 to 18 times the mass of our Sun.
Antares is one of the first red supergiant stars that scientists have been able to take a direct picture of.
-
Antares is the star in the yellow nebula.
-
A picture of Antares, made from special telescope images.
-
Antares compared to Arcturus and the Sun.
Images for kids
-
Antares (white star) seen in infrared light.
-
A special view of Antares' surface, created by the VLTI.
-
Antares shining brightly in the night sky, seen from Earth.
See also
In Spanish: Antares para niños
