The star is around 14,000 times hotter than the sun. (Image credit: Miguel Claro)ĭelta Scorpii is a binary star located about 491 light-years from Earth that is also sometimes referred to as 'the crown of the scorpion.' The main component of Delta Scorpii, δ Scorpii A, is a massive star 5 times the size of the sun with 13 times its mass. The constellation Sagittarius glows at the left, with Scorpius on the right.

The entire Beta Scorpii system is located around 400 light-years away and is believed to be very young at just a few million years old compared to our 4.6 billion-year-old star, the sun.Īstrophotographer Miguel Claro sent a photo of a skywatcher in silhouette, appearing to hold up the night sky in the Azores, Portugal, on May 4, 2014. This instability leads them to break down into smaller groupings like binary pairings of two stars.īeta Scorpii appears to be a double star when viewed with a small telescope, but deeper investigation with more sophisticated astronomical instruments reveals this star, also once called Graffias which literally means 'claws' in Italian, is comprised of at least six stars. We only currently know of one other septuple system and astronomers think such large groupings of stars are rare because they are often unstable. But, this isn't the end of the stellar secrets held by Nu Scorpii.Īstronomers currently believe (opens in new tab) this star to actually be comprised of at least seven individual stars in a rare 'septuple' star system. These 4 stars comprise two close pairings Nu Scorpii AB and CD that are separated by about 41 arcseconds. Located 470 light years away, Nu Scorpii with a magnitude of 4 appears to be composed of four stars when viewed with a telescope, with its components being blueish in color.

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