Star profile
2 Scorpii
Hot blue starWhat is 2 Scorpii
2 Scorpii burns as a blue B-type star more than 500 light-years away, set against the Scorpion's body not far from the red heart of Antares. Its apparent magnitude of 4.59 masks an immense output: at such a distance, its luminosity outshines the Sun by hundreds of times. The radiation arriving tonight left its surface when European astronomers of the 16th century were still debating whether the Earth turned.
Where it is and when to see it
2 Scorpii lies in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is visible to the naked eye under a dark sky. Its best month of the year is May, when it culminates around midnight.
- From London it culminates about 13° above the horizon.
- From New York it culminates about 24° above the horizon.
- From Sydney it culminates about 81° above the horizon.
It can be seen from anywhere south of 65° N.
It ranks no. 27 in brightness among the 104 stars of Scorpius in our catalogue. To find it, start from Antares, the brightest: it lies about 8° away (a fist at arm's length covers about 10°).
The light you see today left it about 500 years ago.
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Astronomical data for 2 Scorpii
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Apparent magnitude
- 4.59
- Distance
- 502.6 light years
- Coordinates (J2000)
- RA 238.403° · Dec -25.327°
- Catalogue
- HIP 77840 · HD 142114
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Other stars in Scorpius
Scorpius has 104 stars in Stelvia's catalogue. Here are a few of them.
- AntaresAlpha Scorpii1.06
- ShaulaLambda Scorpii1.62
- SargasTheta Scorpii1.86
- Omega 2 Scorpii4.31
- Omicron Scorpii4.55
- 13 Scorpii4.58
- 1 Scorpii4.63
- Zeta 1 Scorpii4.70