Scorpius

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Scorpius

Scorpius is one of the constellation

Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
s of the zodiac

Zodiac

Zodiac denotes an annual cycle of twelve stations along the ecliptic, the apparent path of the Sun across the heavens through the constellations that divide the ecliptic into twelve equal zones of celestial longitude....
; as an astrological sign

Astrological sign

Astrological signs represent twelve equal segments or divisions of the zodiac. According to astrology, celestial phenomena reflect or govern human activity on the principle of "Macrocosm and microcosm", so that the twelve signs are held to represent twelve basic personality types or characteristic modes of expression....
it is called Scorpio. Its name is Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
for scorpion

Scorpion

Scorpions are any arachnid of the order Scorpionida. They are members of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. There are about 2,000 species of scorpions, found widely distributed south of about Latitude, except New Zealand and Antarctica....
, and its symbol is (Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
). It lies between Libra

Libra (constellation)

Libra...
to the west and Sagittarius

Sagittarius (constellation)

Sagittarius is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for the archer, and its symbol is , a stylized arrow. Sagittarius is commonly represented as a centaur drawing a bow....
to the east. It is a large constellation located in the southern hemisphere near the center of the Milky Way

Milky Way

The Milky Way, sometimes called simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies....
.

pius contains many bright stars, including Antares

Antares

Antares is a red supergiant star in the Milky Way galaxy and list of brightest stars in the nighttime sky . Along with Aldebaran, Spica, and Regulus it is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic....
(a Sco), ß¹ Sco

Beta Scorpii

Beta Scorpii is a star system in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional names Acrab, Akrab or El Acrab , as well as Graffias, a name it shares with Xi Scorpii....
(Graffias), d Sco

Delta Scorpii

Delta Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Dschubba or also Iclarcrau or Iclarkrav....
(Dschubba), ? Sco

Theta Scorpii

Theta Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional names Sargas and Girtab, both of Sumerian origin....
(Sargas), ? Sco

Lambda Scorpii

Lambda Scorpii is the second brightest star system in the constellation Scorpius, and list of brightest stars in the nighttime sky. It has the Bayer designation ? despite being the second brightest in its constellation....
(Shaula), ? Sco

Nu Scorpii

Nu Scorpii is a star system in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Jabbah, which means "forehead" in Arabic language....
(Jabbah), ? Sco

Xi Scorpii

Xi Scorpii is a star system in the constellation Scorpius. The Xi Scorpii system consists of at least five stars in two groups separated by 4.67 arcminutes on the sky, corresponding to a distance of at least 8000 Astronomical Units ....
(Grafias), p Sco

Pi Scorpii

Pi Scorpii is a triple star star system in the constellation Scorpius. It is approximately 459 light years from Earth.Pi Scorpii A is a contact binary of the Beta Lyrae variable....
(Iclil), s Sco

Sigma Scorpii

Sigma Scorpii is a star system in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Al Niyat, although this name is sometimes also applied to Tau Scorpii, or to the Asterism formed by both Sigma and Tau....
(Alniyat), t Sco

Tau Scorpii

Tau Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. Tau Scorpii also has the traditional name Alniyat or Al Niyat, which it shares with Sigma Scorpii....
(also known as Alniyat) and ? Sco

Upsilon Scorpii

Upsilon Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Lesath , from Arabic language las'a = "pass of a poisonous animal"; but this is a miscorrection by Scaliger for earlier "Alascha", which came from Arabic al latkha = "the foggy patch", referring to the nearby open cluster Ptolemy Clust...
(Lesath). Most of the bright stars are massive members of the nearest OB association

Stellar association

A stellar association is a very loose star cluster, looser than both open clusters and globular clusters. Stellar associations will normally contain from 10 to 100 or more stars....
: Scorpius-Centaurus

Scorpius-Centaurus Association

The Scorpius-Centaurus Association is the neareststellar association to the Sun. This stellar association is composed of three subgroups , whose mean distances range from...
.

The star d Sco, after having been a stable 2.3 magnitude

Apparent magnitude

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Encyclopedia

Scorpius is one of the constellation

Constellation

Zodiac

Astrological sign

Latin

Scorpion

(Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate Character expressed in most of the world's writing systems....
). It lies between Libra

Libra (constellation)

Libra...
to the west and Sagittarius

Sagittarius (constellation)

Milky Way

The Milky Way, sometimes called simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies....
.

Notable features

Stars

Scorpius contains many bright stars, including Antares

Antares

Beta Scorpii

Delta Scorpii

Delta Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Dschubba or also Iclarcrau or Iclarkrav....
(Dschubba), ? Sco

Theta Scorpii

Theta Scorpii is a star in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional names Sargas and Girtab, both of Sumerian origin....
(Sargas), ? Sco

Lambda Scorpii

Nu Scorpii

Nu Scorpii is a star system in the constellation Scorpius. It also has the traditional name Jabbah, which means "forehead" in Arabic language....
(Jabbah), ? Sco

Xi Scorpii

Pi Scorpii

Sigma Scorpii

Tau Scorpii

Upsilon Scorpii

Stellar association

Scorpius-Centaurus Association

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measurement of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, normalized to the value it would have in the absence of the Earth's atmosphere....
star flared in July 2000 to 1.9 in a matter of weeks. it has since become a variable star fluctuating between 2.0 and 1.6. This means that at its brightest it is the second brightest star in Scorpius.

?¹ Scorpii and ?² Scorpii

Omega Scorpii

The Bayer designation Omega Scorpii is shared by two stars, ?? Scorpii and ?? Scorpii, in the constellation Scorpius. They are separated by 0.24? on the sky....
are an optical double, which can be resolved by the unaided eye. They have contrasting blue and yellow colours.

The star once designated ? Sco (despite being well within the boundaries of Libra) is today known as s Lib

Sigma Librae

Sigma Librae is a star in the constellation Libra . It also has the traditional names Brachium , Cornu , and Zubenalgubi ....
. Moreover, the entire constellation of Libra was considered to be claws of Scorpius (Chelae Scorpionis) in Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
times, with a set of scales held aloft by Astraea

Astraea

In Greek mythology, Astraea or Astrea was a daughter of Zeus and Themis or of Eos and Astraeus. She and her mother were both personifications of justice....
(represented by adjacent Virgo

Virgo

Virgo may refer to:8 beautiful* Virgo , an astrological sign* Virgo , a musical project between Andre Matos and Sascha Paeth* Virgo , a constellation...
) being formed from these western-most stars during later Greek times. The division into Libra was formalised during Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
times.

? Sco and ? Sco, two stars at the end of the scorpion's tail that appear very close together, are sometimes referred to as the Cat

Cat

The cat , also known as the Domestication cat or house cat to distinguish it from other Felinae and Felidae, is a small predationy carnivore species of crepuscular mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and its ability to hunt vermin, snakes, scorpions, and other unwanted household pests....
's Eyes.

Deep sky objects

Due to its location on the Milky Way

Milky Way

The Milky Way, sometimes called simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies....
, this constellation contains many deep sky objects such as the open cluster

Open cluster

An open cluster is a star cluster of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud, and are still loosely gravity to each other....
s Messier 6 (the Butterfly Cluster

Butterfly Cluster

The Butterfly Cluster is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Scorpius. Its name derives from the vague resemblance of its shape to a butterfly....
) and Messier 7 (the Ptolemy Cluster

Ptolemy Cluster

Messier 7 or M7, also designated NGC 6475 and sometimes known as known as the Ptolemy Cluster, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Scorpius....
), and the globular cluster

Globular cluster

A globular cluster is a sphere collection of stars that orbits a Galactic Center as a satellite. Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes and relatively high stellar densities toward their centers....
s Messier 4

Messier 4

Messier 4 or M4 is a globular cluster in the constellation of Scorpius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Ch?seaux in 1746 and catalogued by Charles Messier in 1764....
and Messier 80

Messier 80

Messier 80 is a globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781.M80 is located midway between a Scorpii and Beta Scorpii in a field in the Milky Way that is rich in nebulae....
. Also in the southern end of the constellation by ?² Sco, there is the open star cluster NGC 6231

NGC 6231

NGC 6231 is an open cluster located near Zeta Scorpii. Zeta1 Scorpii and Zeta2 Scorpii Scorpii are members of this star cluster.This cluster is estimated about 3.2 million years old, and is approaching the Solar System at 22 km/s....
.

Mythology

The brightest stars of Scorpius form a branched asterism

Asterism (astronomy)

In astronomy, an asterism is a pattern of stars seen in Earth's sky which is not an official constellation. Like constellations, they are composed of stars which, while they are in the same general direction, are not physically related, often being at significantly different distances from Earth....
that can be interpreted as the body of a scorpion.

In Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
, Scorpius is sometimes identified with the scorpion sent by the goddess Gaia

Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
to kill the hunter Orion

Orion (mythology)

Orion was a giant hunting of Greek mythology whom Zeus placed among the stars as the Orion .Ancient sources tell several different stories about Orion....
. The constellation of Orion

Orion (constellation)

Orion , often referred to as "The Hunter," is a prominent constellation ? one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most recognizable in the night sky....
is almost opposite to Scorpius in the night sky; it has been suggested that this was a divine precaution to forestall the heavenly continuation of the feud. In this version of the myth, Apollo

Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
sent the scorpion after Orion, having grown jealous of Artemis

Artemis

In Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of forests and hills, child birth/virginity/fertility, the hunt and was often depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows.....
' attentions to him; later, in contrition for killing her friend, Apollo helped Artemis hang Orion's image in the night sky, but the scorpion was also placed up there, and every time it appears on the horizon, Orion starts to sink into the other side of the sky, still running from the attacker.

Scorpius also appears in one version of the story of Phaethon, the mortal son of Helios

Helios

Helios is the god of sun.In Greek mythology the sun was personified as Helios . Homer often calls him simply Titan or Hyperion , while Hesiod and the Homeric Hymn separate him as a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaessa and brother of the goddesses Selene, the moon, and Eos, the dawn....
, the sun. Phaethon asked to drive the sun-chariot for a day. Phaethon lost control of the chariot. The horses, already out of control, were scared by the great celestial scorpion with its sting raised to strike, and the inexperienced boy lost control of the chariot, as the sun wildly went about the sky.

In Chinese astronomy

Chinese astronomy

Astronomy in China has a very long history. Oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty record eclipses and novae. Detailed records of astronomical observations were kept from about the 6th century BC until the introduction of Western astronomy and the telescope in the 16th century....
, Scorpius is not a unified constellation; instead, its stars are included within the Azure Dragon, a powerful but benevolent creature whose rising heralded spring.

In Maori mythology

Maori mythology

Maori mythology and Maori traditions are the two major categories into which the legends of the Maori of New Zealand may usefully be divided....
, Scorpius is identified with Maui

Maui

The island of Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727.2 square miles and is the List of islands of the United States by area....
's magic jawbone, the front of Tama-rereti's waka

Waka (canoe)

In the Maori language and New Zealand English, waka are Maori watercraft, usually canoes ranging in size from small, unornamented canoes used for fishing and river travel, to large decorated war canoes up to long....
(used to ferry the stars into the sky) or one of the posts Tane

Tane

In Maori mythology, Tane is the god of forests and of birds, and the son of Rangi and Papa, the sky father and the earth mother, who lie in a tight embrace....
used to hold Ranginui (the sky-father) in the sky. While three posts (Sirius, Matariki/The Pleiades and Orion) hold up the top half of Ranginui, only a single post (Scorpius) supports the lower half of his body. It therefore appears bent under the weight.

In Polynesian

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean....
lore, it is the "Great Fishhook" with which the gods pulled the islands out of the sea.

Astrology

The Western astrological sign

Astrological sign

Sidereal astrology

Sidereal astrology is the system of astrology used by some Western and all Jyotish astrology who base their interpretation around the use of the Sidereal time zodiac....
(November 16–December 16). Astronomically, the sun is in Scorpius for just one week, from November 23–November 30. Much of the difference is due to the constellation Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus

Ophiuchus is a large constellation located around the celestial equator. Its name is Greek language for 'snake-holder', and it is commonly represented as a man grasping the snake that is represented by the constellation Serpens....
, which is used by only a few astrologers. Scorpius corresponds to the nakshatras Anuradha

Anuradha

In Hinduism, Anuradha is a goddess of good luck . Anuradha is the 17th nakshatra....
, Jyeshtha

Jyeshtha (nakshatra)

Jyeshtha is the 18th nakshatra or lunar mansion in Jyotisha associated with the heart of the constellation Scorpius , and the stars Alpha Scorpii , Sigma Scorpii, and Tau Scorpii ....
, and Mula

Mula (astrology)

Mula is the 19th nakshatra or lunar mansion in Jyotisha and corresponds to the the stars Epsilon Scorpii, ?, Eta Scorpii, Theta Scorpii, ?, Kappa Scorpii, Upsilon Scorpii, Lambda Scorpii, Mu Scorpii and Nu Scorpii Scorpius in the tail/sting of Scorpius....

Scorpius

Notable features

Stars

Deep sky objects

Mythology

Astrology

External links