Sulafat is a blue-white giant in Lyra, the second-brightest star of the Lyre, named after the tortoise whose shell made the first lyre.
At a glance
| type | blue-white giant (class B) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 620 light-years (190 pc) |
| its light left it | 620 years ago |
| luminosity | 2,380 × the Sun |
| radius | 14.2 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 10,700 K |
| constellation | Lyra (Lyre) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Sulafat
Sulafat, Gamma Lyrae, is a hot giant of class B, a star past its main life and swollen to many times the Sun’s width, and far more luminous.
The name comes from the Arabic for tortoise: in Greek myth Hermes made the first lyre from a tortoise shell. With Sheliak it forms the far edge of the small parallelogram hanging below Vega, and the Ring Nebula, M57, lies between the two.
What you see in the piece
From Earth it sits close to Vega; fly out and it recedes far behind it, because Vega is a near neighbour of the Sun and Sulafat is not.
Questions
How far away is Sulafat?
Sulafat is 620 light-years (190 pc) from the Sun.
Where is the Ring Nebula?
The Ring Nebula lies in Lyra between Sulafat and Sheliak, the two stars at the far end of the parallelogram below Vega.