Таразы шоқжұлдызы

Zodiac constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere
the constellation

Libra '/l//iː//b//r//ə/ is a constellation of the zodiac and is located in the Southern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for weighing scales. Its old astronomical symbol is (♎︎). It is fairly faint, with no first magnitude stars, and lies between Virgo to the west and Scorpius to the east. Beta Librae, also known as Zubeneschamali, is the brightest star in the constellation. Three star systems are known to have planets.

Overall, there are 83 stars within the constellation's borders brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5.) was formerly known as Gamma Scorpii despite being well inside the boundaries of Libra. It was not redesignated as Sigma Librae until 1851 by Benjamin A. Gould.

Libra was known in Babylonian astronomy as MUL Zibanu (the "scales" or "balance"), or alternatively as the Claws of the Scorpion. The scales were held sacred to the sun god Shamash, who was also the patron of truth and justice. It was also seen as the Scorpion's Claws in ancient Greece. Since these times, Libra has been associated with law, fairness and civility. In Arabic zubānā means "scorpion's claws", and likely similarly in other Semitic languages: this resemblance of words may be why the Scorpion's claws became the Scales. Indeed, Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, the names of the constellation's two main stars, in Arabic mean "southern claw" and "northern claw" respectively. It has also been suggested that the scales are an allusion to the fact that when the sun entered this part of the ecliptic at the autumnal equinox, the days and nights are equal. Libra is a constellation not mentioned by Eudoxus or Aratus. It only became a constellation in ancient Rome, when it began to represent the scales held by Astraea, the goddess of justice, associated with Virgo in the Greek mythology.

Libra is bordered by the head of Serpens to the north, Virgo to the northwest, Hydra to the southwest, the corner of Centaurus to the southwest, Lupus to the south, Scorpius to the east and Ophiuchus to the northeast. Covering 538.1 square degrees and 1.304% of the night sky, it ranks 29th of the 88 constellations in size. The three letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is "Lib". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 12 segments (illustrated in infobox). In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the declination coordinates are between −0.47° and −30.00°. The whole constellation is visible to observers south of latitude 60°N. efn|1=While parts of the constellation technically rise above the horizon to observers between 60°N and 89°N, stars within a few degrees of the horizon are to all intents and purposes unobservable. Gliese 581c is considered to be the first Earth like extrasolar planet to be found within its parent star's habitable zone. Gliese 581e is possibly the smallest mass exoplanet orbiting a normal star found to date All of these exoplanets are of significance for establishing the likelihood of life outside of the Solar System. The family of candidate habitable planets was extended in late September 2010 to include exoplanets around red dwarf stars because of Gliese 581g, which is a tidally locked planet in the middle of the habitable zone. Weather studies show that tidally locked planets may still have the ability to support life.

Libra is home to one bright globular cluster, NGC 5897. It is a loose cluster, 50,000 light years from Earth; it is fairly large and has an integrated magnitude of 9. IC 1059 is a galaxy in the constellation Libra.

as of 2002, the Sun appears in the constellation Libra from October 31 to November 22. In tropical astrology, the Sun is considered to be in the sign Libra from the northern autumnal equinox (c. September 23) to on or about October 23, and in sidereal astrology, from October 16 to November 15.

Libra (AKA 12) was a United States navy ship named after the constellation. Tropical Storm Tembin Four tropical cyclones in the western Pacific have been given its Japanese name.