Uh-Oh! Astronomers Discover Unknown ‘Force’ Coming From The Star Antares

The Star Antares – the largest in the constellation Scorpio shows that it is approaching end of its life and expelling unknown matter from its cosmic depths.  Antares is about 604 light-years from Earth. If our solar system were centered on it, it could easily engulf the entire orbit of Mars.
Antares and Clouds Image Credit and Copyright: Ivan Eder


A new study has been conducted to find out more about the Star Antares, supervised by Keiichi Ohnaka.  A researcher at Chile’s Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN) attempts to understand how and why the red supergiant Antares expel so much matter of its surface, as it approaches the end of its life and nears its finale as a spectacular supernova.

In addition, the size of Antares is 833 times greater than the sun which makes it an ideal model for the study of what could happen to our Sun and eventually our Earth. The team of astronomers led by Keiichi Ohnaka published in the journal Nature, a study that presents a new vision of the supergiant.

In a very recent interview with space news related organization ‘Space.com’, Professor Ohnaka stated that:

“With this study, we can open a new window to observe stars other than the sun … in a similar way that we observe the sun. We can then apply this technique to investigate other problems — not only supergiants, like Antares but also other types of stars and other unsolved problems.”

Scientist used VLT observatory for their observations, whereby a system of four telescopes measuring at eight metres each capable of working as a single instrument. 


Making it the largest telescope in the world hence its name Very Large Telescope or otherwise known as VLT.  Recent observations show that the behaviour of the spectrum of CO emissions allowed astronomers to predict the density and the velocity of Antares plasma flows. Whereby, at this point they notice something unusual.        

The density is significantly higher than expected, this means that the substance expelled from the depth of the star to its surface is far superior to what was considered possible.



At this point, it can only be interpreted this way: as the insides of the star Antares lies a powerful unknown force that astronomers have not seen until now.

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