Menkent

Its story

Menkent is a near neighbour at only 58.8 light-years: an orange giant that has exhausted the hydrogen in its core and is slowly swelling. Her name, from the Arabic «mankib al-qantūris», means 'the shoulder of the centaur', a modest anatomical point on an enormous mythic figure. Though unassuming to the unaided eye, her proximity makes her one of the most studied stellar laboratories of the southern sky.