Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2020

50 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2020 SPACE CHRONICLES just above the star’s surface, throughout its chromosphere, and all the way out to the wind region. Red supergiant stars, like Antares and its more well-known cousin Betelgeuse, are huge, relatively cold stars at the end of their life- time. They are on their way to run out of fuel, collapse, and become supernovae. Through their vast stellar winds, they launch heavy el- ements into space, thereby playing an important role in providing the essential building blocks for life in the universe. But it is a mystery how these enormous winds are launched. A detailed study of the atmosphere of Antares, perhaps the closest supergiant star to Earth, provides a crucial step towards an Supergiant atmosphere of Antares revealed by radio telescopes by ALMA Observatory A n international team of as- tronomers has created the most detailed map yet of the atmosphere of the red super- giant star Antares. The unprece- dented sensitivity and resolution of both the Atacama Large Millime- ter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) revealed the size and temper- ature of Antares’ atmosphere from A rtist impression of red super- giant star Antares. [NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello]