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Credit & Copyright: Ivan Eder
Explanation:
Antares is a huge star.
In a class called red supergiant,
Antares is about 850
times the diameter of our own Sun, 15 times more massive,
and 10,000 times brighter.
Antares is the brightest star
in the constellation of Scorpius and one of the
brighter stars
in all the night sky.
Located about 550 light years away,
Antares
is seen on the left surrounded by a yellowish nebula of gas which it has itself expelled.
Radiation from Antares' blue stellar
companion helps cause the nebular gas to
glow.
Far behind Antares
in the
above image
is the globular star cloud
M4, while the bright star on the right is
Al Niyat.
Ideas Needed:
APOD might need funding help.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Antares - star - nebula
Publications with words: Antares - star - nebula
See also: