Menkib

Its story

Menkib is a rare blue O-type star, a hot variable supergiant some 1,245 light-years from the Earth in the constellation Perseus. Stars of its class are so massive they live only a few million years before erupting as supernovae, a short and violent existence in cosmic terms. Its Arabic name means «the shoulder»: it marks that of Perseus himself, the hero who in Greek myth cut off Medusa's head and rescued Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus in a single famous and decisive feat.