​MARS CONJUNCT ANTARES

DECEMBER 27, 2021

​MARS CONJUNCT ANTARES
DECEMBER 27, 2021
Mars Antares Conjunction Corridor
December 26-31, 2021 with
Cosmic Rising on January 1, 2022
Mars makes a sunrise conjunction this week with its legendary “rival” — the star Antares, “The Heart of the Scorpion” in the Scorpius Constellation.
The two rise on the eastern horizon just before dawn for the remainder of the 2021 mornings. Mars rises just before Antares on Dec 27, and later and closer to Antares each day, until they rise simultaneously on January 1, 2022 (called the cosmic rising).
Look for these two rivals in the east about 45 min before sunrise on the mornings of December 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. The crescent moon joins them on the last morning of 2021- December 31, 2021.
Antares gets its name because it resembles Mars. Both bodies look reddish orange, and both are bright. Ancient skywatchers thought of Mars and the star as rivals, so the name Antares means “rival of Ares,” the Greek version of Mars.
Antares lies along the ecliptic path the Sun and planets follow across the sky, so it is frequented by the sun, moon and the planets. And every couple of years, Mars passes quite close to it.
Of course, any rivalry between a planet and star is one-sided. Mars is a ball of rock and metal a bit more than half the diameter of Earth. It looks red or orange because its surface is coated with orange dirt.
Antares, on the other hand, is a supergiant, which makes it one of the biggest stars in our region of the galaxy. If Antares replaced the Sun in our own solar system, it would extend beyond the orbit of Mars — putting a quick end to its famous rival.