Moon close to Antares
The waning crescent moon will rise within the wee morning hours alongside Antares on the mornings of February 14 and 15, 2023. Antares is the brightest star in Scorpius the Scorpion and has the nickname of The Coronary heart of the Scorpion. You can even spy the Crown of Scorpius – a barely curved line of three stars – close to the moon on these mornings.
For the reason that view of the celebs, moon and planets varies by your place on the globe, we advise you strive Stellarium for a exact star chart to your location.
Antares is near demise
Antares is a red supergiant star. So, this massive, 1st-magnitude star is near the tip of its life. Sometime quickly (astronomically talking), it should successfully run out of gas and collapse. The ensuing speedy collapse of its monumental mass – some 11-14 instances the mass of our sun – will trigger an immense supernova explosion, in the end leaving a tiny neutron star or presumably a black hole. This explosion, which might be tomorrow or hundreds of thousands of years from now, might be a spectacular present from Earth, however we’re far sufficient away that there possible is not any hazard to our planet.
Stars within the Crown of Scorpius
Are you able to additionally spot the Crown of the Scorpion, which marks the Scorpion’s Head? It’s a barely curved arc of three stars: Acrab, Dschubba, and Fang.
By the way, the higher a part of the Scorpion – Antares on the Coronary heart, and the three stars on the Crown – are all a part of a bunch of younger stars often known as the Scorpius–Centaurus Association. So these stars have been possible born collectively from a single cloud of gasoline and dust in space. They usually nonetheless transfer by space as a loosely related group of stars.
Backside line: Discover the waning crescent moon close to Antares on the mornings of February 14 and 15, 2023. You might also spot the Crown of Scorpius close by.
For more great observing events in the coming weeks, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide