Zubenelgenubi

Its story

Zubenelgenubi — the «southern claw» — keeps the name it bore when Libra was not yet a scale but part of the Scorpion. It is a white star a mere 76 light-years away, among the closest of the bright zodiacal stars. When Greek astronomers rebranded the constellation as the Balance, the old claw remained suspended in the sky under its original Arabic name, a quiet witness to how constellations shift identity over time.