Beta Librae
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Beta Librae is the brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Libra. It has the proper name Zubeneschamali , Beta Librae is its Bayer designation. From parallax measurements taken by the Hipparcos mission, its distance is measured to be . The apparent visual magnitude of this star is 2.6. According to Eratosthenes, Beta Librae was observed to be brighter than Antares. Ptolemy, 350 years later, said it was as bright as Antares. The discrepancy may be due to Antares becoming brighter, but this is not known for certain. It could simply be caused by Beta Librae being a variable star, showing a present-day variability of 0.03 of a magnitude.
Beta Librae is the brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Libra. It has the proper name Zubeneschamali , Beta Librae is its Bayer designation. From parallax measurements taken by the Hipparcos mission, its distance is measured to be . The apparent visual magnitude of this star is 2.6. According to Eratosthenes, Beta Librae was observed to be brighter than Antares. Ptolemy, 350 years later, said it was as bright as Antares. The discrepancy may be due to Antares becoming brighter, but this is not known for certain. It could simply be caused by Beta Librae being a variable star, showing a present-day variability of 0.03 of a magnitude.
Name
β Librae (Latinised to Beta Librae) is the star's Bayer designation. It can also be abbreviated as Beta Lib or β Lib. It bore the traditional name Zubeneschamali (less common renderings, or corruptions, are Zuben Eschamali, Zuben el Chamali, Zubenesch, Zubenelg), derived from the Arabic الزُّبَانَى الشَمَالِي (al-zubānā al-šamāliyy) meaning "the northern claw". This name originated in a time when Libra was viewed as representing the "claws of the scorpion". There was also Kiffa Borealis, from the Arabic al-kiffah aš-šamāliyy "the northern pan (of the scales)" and the Latin equivalent Lanx Borealis. In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) to catalogue and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Zubeneschamali for this star on 21 August 2016 and it is now so entered in the IAU Catalog of Star Names. In Chinese, ( ), meaning Root, refers to an asterism consisting of β Librae, α 2 Librae, ι Librae and γ Librae. Consequently, the Chinese name for β Librae itself is ( ), "the Fourth Star of Root".
References
External links
– Find more Arabic Star Names and their meanings.
Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1374454116 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.