Antares

Antares , brightest star in the constellation Scorpius ; Bayer designation Alpha Scorpii; 1992 position R.A. 16 ^h 27.6 ^m , Dec. -26°22′. A red supergiant of spectral class M1, Antares has an apparent magnitude of about 0.9, making it one of the 20 brightest stars in the sky. Its name is from the Greek meaning "rival of Mars," referring both to its color and to its brightness. Antares is a binary star and a semiregular variable, with magnitude ranging from 0.86 to 1.02. Its distance from the earth is about 520 light-years.

Antares The star Alpha Scorpii, an M1.5 supergiant over 10 000 times as luminous as the Sun and with a diameter about 400 times the Sun's. It is a semiregular variable, ranging between magnitudes 0.9 and 1.2 with a period of about 5 years. Antares lies 604 l.y. away. It has a B2 dwarf companion of magnitude 5.4 with an orbital period of about 900 years. The name Antares is Greek, and is usually translated as ‘rival of Mars’, because of its strong red colour, but sometimes as ‘like Mars’.

Antar.
1. Orch. work by Rimsky-Korsakov, Op.9, first described as his Sym. No.2 when it appeared in 1868. Rev. and re-orch. 1876 and 1897 and again in 1903 when it was designated ‘oriental suite’. Based on an oriental tale by Sennkovsky.

2. Opera by Gabriel Dupont (1912–13).