Theta Centauri
Theta Centauri is a single star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, the centaur. It has the official name Menkent, pronounced ; Theta Centauri is its Bayer designation, which is Latinized from θ Centauri and abbreviated Theta Cen or θ Cen. With an apparent visual magnitude of +2.06, it is the fourth-brightest member of the constellation. Based on parallax measurements obtained during the Hipparcos mission, it is about distant. It has a relatively high proper motion, traversing the celestial sphere at the rate of. This suggests that Menkent may have originated in the outer disk of the Milky Way and is merely passing through the solar neighborhood.
Nomenclature
θ Centauri, Latinised to Theta Centauri, is the star's Bayer designation.It bore the traditional name of Menkent derived from the Arabic word مَنْكِب for "shoulder", apparently blended with a shortened form of "kentaurus". In 2016, the International Astronomical Union organized a Working Group on Star Names to catalog and standardize proper names for stars. The WGSN approved the name Menkent for this star on 21 August 2016 and it is now so included in the List of IAU-approved Star Names.
In Chinese, 庫樓, meaning arsenal, refers to an asterism consisting of Theta Centauri, Zeta Centauri, Eta Centauri, 2 Centauri, HD 117440, Xi¹ Centauri, Gamma Centauri, Tau Centauri, D Centauri and Sigma Centauri. Consequently, the Chinese name for Theta Centauri itself is 庫樓三.