Beta Librae
Sign in to saveAlso known as 27 Librae, Zubeneschamali, Kiffa Borealis, HD 135742, HR 5685, HIC 74785, HIP 74785, β Librae
star in the zodiac constellation of Libra
Key facts
- Constellation
- Libra
- Right ascension
- 15 17 00.41382
- Declination
- −09 ° 22 ′ 58.4919 ″
- Evolutionary stage
- Main sequence
- Spectral type
- B8 V
- U b color index
- −0.359
- B v color index
- −0.106
- Variable type
- Suspected
via Wikipedia infobox
~4 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Beta Librae is the brightest star in the zodiac constellation of Libra. It has the proper name Zubeneschamali /zuːˌbɛnɛʃəˈmeɪli/, Beta Librae is its Bayer designation. From parallax measurements taken by the Hipparcos mission, its distance is measured to be 185 light-years (57 parsecs).
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.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Beta Librae” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.