Vega is the bright white star of Lyra, a fast-spinning neighbour circled by dust, once the standard for star brightness and a future pole star.
At a glance
| type | white star (class A) |
|---|---|
| distance from the Sun | 25 light-years (7.68 pc) |
| its light left it | 25 years ago |
| luminosity | 40.1 × the Sun |
| radius | 2.36 × the Sun |
| surface temperature | 9,600 K |
| constellation | Lyra (Lyre) |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Vega
Vega is a main-sequence star hotter and larger than the Sun, one of the brightest stars in the night sky and a corner of the Summer Triangle with Altair and Deneb. It spins very fast, and we happen to see it almost pole-on, which hides the flattening that the spin produces.
Vega served for a long time as the reference point of the magnitude scale, the zero against which other stars were measured. It was the first star other than the Sun to be photographed. An infrared satellite found that it glows with more infrared than a star alone should, the first sign of a disc of dust around another star.
Earth’s axis slowly wobbles, so the pole of the sky drifts among the stars. Long in the future that drift will bring the pole close to Vega, which will then serve as a northern pole star.
What you see in the piece
With HUMAN EYE on it is among the brightest stars overhead in northern summer, white because of its hot surface. Up close it is a bright white disc.
Questions
How far away is Vega?
Vega is 25 light-years (7.68 pc) from the Sun, so the light you see tonight left it 25 years ago.
Will Vega become the North Star?
Yes. The slow wobble of Earth’s axis will carry the north celestial pole near Vega in the distant future, as it once did before.