Nu

Its story

Nu Cancri glides with a clean white light along the carapace of the Crab, 392 light-years away, not far from the famous Beehive cluster. It is an A-type star — young, hot and quick-spinning — one of those discreet jewels that outline the flanks of a faint constellation. Cancer has historically been the zodiacal gate of the northern summer; on its barely drawn body, Nu has held its place unchanged since before Hipparchus assembled the first systematic catalogues in the second century before Christ.