Antares is the brightest star in the constellation Scorpio and the sixteenth brightest in the night sky. It is a red supergiant located about 550 light years from Earth with an estimated mass of about 17 solar masses. It is a huge star, its radius exceeds about 880 times that of the Sun but instead has a lower surface temperature than our star. It is so large that if it were in the solar system its surface would surpass the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Possibly it will cease to be visible in our firmament in less than 1 million years because it is in the red supergiant phase and will soon explode in supernova.
