Scorpius (Sco)
"The Scorpion"

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Mythology: Scorpius is one of the more popular constellations -- everyone wants to see the giant Scorpion in the sky.  Scorpius' place in mythology is closely related to the constellation Orion (please see the web page for the complete story of Orion -- it is long and intertwined!).  Orion was the Son of Poseidon, the God of the Sea (Poseidon became Neptune when the Romans renamed the Olympic Gods), and his mother was a mortal woman.  Because he was part mortal, Orion could die.  The most common and popular story says Orion was killed by Scorpius the Scorpion.  Why was Scorpius pursuing Orion?  As is often the case in classical mythology, there are several accounts.  One version claims that Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt, sent the Scorpion after Orion because he was such a skilled hunter he was destroying all the animal life on Earth (a smaller version of this story claims Orion also tried to have his way with Artemis, and she sent Scorpius for revenge).  Other stories say it was Mother Earth, Gaia (mother of Zeus) who sent Scorpius to kill Orion to help save the animals from him.  Orion did fall victim to the sting of Scorpius, and both were made into constellations.
    What is interesting to note is that Scorpius is one hundred eighty degrees across the sky from Orion.  Therefore, when Orion is setting in the West, Scorpius is rising in the East, thus symbolizing the Scorpion's triumph over Orion.
    However, Orion was resurrected from the dead by Ascepius, represented by the constellation Ophiuchus, by using an antidote to the Scorpion's poison.  So, the story is completed with the opposite phenomenon as above:  when Scorpius is setting in the West, Orion is rising in the East, symbolizing his resurrection and final victory over Scorpius.  Also note that the constellation Ophiuchus is above Scorpius, so that Scorpius is being symbolically crushed by the heel of Ophiuchus.

Other Interesting Sights:  Scorpius is an easy constellation to identify -- simply look for the "J" shaped asterism is the Southern sky.  Like Leo and Sagittarius, Scorpius seems to be a very old constellation, with references dating back more than 5,000 years.
    The bright star in Scorpius is Antares.  It is a very bright and red star.  It is so bright and red, in fact, that many people must have confused it with the planet Mars, for the word Antares literally means "Not Mars."
    There are four Messier objects within the constellation Scorpius:

    1.  M6 -- an open star cluster sometimes called the Butterfly Cluster.  M6 is the closest Messier object (angular measure) from the center of the galaxy in Sagittarius.  The diameter of this star cluster is about 20 light years, and it contains stars roughly 50 - 100 million years old.

    2.  M7 -- another star cluster, often referred to as the Scorpion's Tail Cluster.  It is also called Ptolemy's Cluster, because it was described by Ptolemy in the years 130 A.D., who wrote of it as being the "nebula following the sting of Scorpius . . ."  This cluster, about 18 light years across, contains a mere 80 stars.

    3.  M4 -- a globular cluster, interesting because it is only 7,000 light years away, making it the closest known globular cluster.  Careful examination reveals a bar-like structure within it.  M4 is also historically interesting in that the first millisecond pulsar was found within it, cataloged as 1821-24.  This phenomenon is a neutron star (the remains of the nucleus of a star that exploded in a supernova) that is rotating 300 times a second.  Also interesting about this cluster is that in 1995 the Hubble Space Telescope found white dwarfs, some of the oldest objects in the Universe, within it.  (White dwarfs are the stellar remains of small stars, like our Sun, who ran out of nuclear fuel.)

    4.  M80 (NGC6093) -- a very dense globular cluster, containing very old and red stars, many much older than our own Sun.  Interestingly, though, there do seem to be some younger blue stars within this cluster.  Although the origin of these young stars is still being investigated, many theories claim they are a result of coalescing; that is, due to collision and capture of other stars (a globular cluster this dense would have a formidable gravitational attraction).