Scorpius is one of the few constellations that really looks like its name: a curving line of stars with a red heart in the middle and a stinger at the tail. For people in the northern hemisphere it skims the southern horizon on summer nights, and it is much more impressive from farther south.
The hunter and the scorpion
The best-known Greek story concerns Orion, a giant hunter who boasted that he could kill every animal on earth. Gaia, the earth, was angered, and in some tellings it was Artemis or Hera who sent a gigantic scorpion. The scorpion stung Orion to death, and the gods set both of them in the sky. They were placed on opposite sides of the sky, so that as Scorpius rises in the east, Orion sets in the west. They are never seen together.
The rival of Mars
The red star at the scorpion's heart is Antares, a name that means "rival of Mars" or "anti-Ares" in Greek, because its color is close to that of the red planet. Antares is a supergiant so large that, if it were placed where our sun is, its surface would reach past the orbit of Mars. The Persians counted it among the four royal stars.
The thirteenth sign?
Every few years the news breaks that astronomers have discovered a thirteenth zodiac sign. The story comes from Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, whose stars lie between Scorpio and Sagittarius. The sun really does cross Ophiuchus, for about 18 days each year, but the constellation was never part of the traditional twelve, because the Babylonians divided the year into twelve equal parts.
How to find it
Scorpius is a summer constellation, and it hangs low in the south from the northern United States. Look for red Antares, then the curve of the tail sweeping down and to the left, ending in a hook of stars that marks the stinger. Farther south, nearer the equator, the whole creature rises high overhead.
On the star chart
Hall's engraving shows a green scorpion with its tail curled around, and the stars scattered over its body.
Little-known facts
- The Scorpion's claws were once part of Libra, and Roman writers could still call Libra the claws.
- The Polynesian navigators saw the curve of Scorpius as the fishhook of the god Maui, which he used to pull islands out of the sea.
- Traditional astrology gives Scorpio to Mars. After Pluto was found in 1930 it also became the sign of Pluto.
- Antares has a faint blue-green companion star that is hard to see against its glare.
- The Milky Way is at its brightest around Scorpius and Sagittarius, looking toward the center of the galaxy.
Scorpio appears on our:
