“Jeddah Astronomy”: The last quarter moon decorates the sky… today
The moon will rise in the last square phase of the month of Shaban after midnight today, Saturday, and it will be associated with the star Antares for the rest of the night.
The head of the Astronomical Society in Jeddah, Engineer Majid Abu Zahra, stated that Antares is a huge, giant red star, such that the sun is considered nothing compared to it, as its mass is 15 to 18 times the mass of the sun and its radius exceeds 448,793,612 kilometers. Therefore, if Antares were in the place of the sun, Its surface will extend beyond the orbit of Mars, covering approximately 60% of the distance to Jupiter.
He explained that Antares is about 550 light-years away from Earth and is only about 12 million years old, and it is in the autumn of its life. Stars like Antares, which are in the final stages of their lives, lose mass quickly, and this leads to gases flowing in a spiral around the star.
He pointed out that the red-colored stars that can be seen with the naked eye are somewhat rare in reality, and all the bright red stars that are seen in the night sky with the naked eye are either red giants (such as the star Aldebaran) or huge red giants (such as the stars Antares and Betelius). Gemini).
He showed that the red color of Antares indicates its low surface temperature, which is about 3,200 degrees Celsius. This is in contrast to the surface temperature of the Sun, which is 5,700 degrees Celsius, which is yellow. The matter is different when comparing Antares to a very hot star, such as the bluish-white defenseless fish. Which has a surface temperature of about 22,100 degrees Celsius.
He said, “One of the most beautiful views will be observing the moon high in the sky coinciding with the beginning of sunrise on Sunday morning, and it will remain visible in the sky until it sets at noon, according to local time.”
It is noteworthy that within the next few days, the distance between the moon and the sun will decrease until the moon becomes in the crescent phase at the end of the month and will be observed shortly before sunrise in preparation for it reaching the position of conjunction for the blessed month of Ramadan.
