Antares, a red supergiant star in Scorpius
Antares is a red supergiant star in the constellation Scorpius. At 535 light years away, it is the 16th brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 1.06.
Antares (HIP 80763)
Antares is a red supergiant star in the constellation Scorpius. At 535 light years away, it is the 16th brightest star in the Earth's sky, where it shines at an apparent visual magnitude of 1.06. Antares is a multiple-star system. It is moving through the Galaxy at a speed of 20.7 km/s relative to the Sun. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 20,400 and 23,900 light years from the center of the Galaxy.
Sky position: RA 16h 29.4m, Dec -26° 25.8'
Common designations: Antares, Alpha Scorpii, 21 Scorpii, HIP 80763, HD 148478, HR 6134
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Brightest stars in Scorpius:
(list all)
1
| 1.06
) Antares
| Rank | Mag. | Star |
| 2 | 1.62 | Shaula |
| 3 | 1.86 | Sargas |
| 4 | 2.29 | Dschubba |
| 5 | 2.29 | Epsilon Scorpii |
| 6 | 2.39 | Kappa Scorpii |
| 7 | 2.56 | Graffias |
| 8 | 2.70 | Lesath |
| 9 | 2.82 | Alniyat |
| 10 | 2.89 | Pi Scorpii |
| 11 | 2.90 | Alniyat |
| 12 | 2.99 | Iota-1 Scorpii |
| 13 | 3.00 | Mu-1 Scorpii |
| 14 | 3.19 | G Scorpii |
| 15 | 3.32 | Eta Scorpii |
| 16 | 3.56 | Mu-2 Scorpii |
| 17 | 3.62 | Grafias |
Hover over other bright stars to identify or click to jump.
Galactic Orbit of Antares
(compared to the Sun)
E
ccentricity: 7.9% vs. 16.0%Angle φ : 146.6°vs. 26.0°
Semi-major axis : 6,809 pc vs. 8,686 pc
Semi-minor axis: 6,788 pc vs. 8,574 pc
Focus-to-center
: 537 pcvs. 1,388 pcSemilatus rectum : 6,767 pc vs. 8,464 pc
Perigalacticon: 6,272 pc vs. 7,297 pc
Apogalacticon
: 7,346 pcvs. 10,074 pcSome Tabulated XHIP Data for Antares
(see also: SIMBAD)
Astrometry
2007A&A...474..653V
| Position | Proper Motion | |
| Right Ascension: | 247.35194829° ±0.87 mas | -12.11 ±1.22 mas/yr. |
| Declination: | -26.43194598° ±0.58 mas | -23.30 ±0.76 mas/yr. |
| Galactic Longitude: | 351.94719547° | -25.49 mas/yr. |
| Galactic Latitude: | 15.06434006° | -6.32 mas/yr. |
Parallax: 5.89 ± 1.00 mas
Spectrography
Spectral Type: M1.5Iab-Ib 1989ApJS...71..245K.
Radial Velocity: -3.50 ±0.80 km/s [A rating] 2006AstL...32..759G.
Iron Abundance [Fe/H]:
n/a
Photometry
band
magnitude
Abs. Mag.
U
B
2.93
-3.15
V
1.06
-5.02
R
I
-1.61
-7.69
J
H
K
B-V: +1.87 V-I: +2.67
Derivations
Heliocentric distance: 164.10 pc (17.0% margin of error)
Galactocentric distance: 7,243 pc
Transverse velocity: 20.4 km/s
3D heliocentric position and motion:
|
toward: |
Galactic center | Galactic rotation | North Galactic Pole |
| Position ( X, Y, Z) | 156.9 pc | -22.2 pc | 42.7 pc |
| Velocity (U, V, W) | -4.9 km/s | -19.3 km/s | -5.7 km/s |