Vega

:This article is about Vega, the star. For other uses: see Vega (disambiguation)

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Vega (α Lyr / α Lyrae / Alpha Lyrae) is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, and the fifth brightest star in the sky. It is the second brightest star in the Northern night sky, after Arcturus, and can often be seen near the zenith in the mid-northern latitudes during the Northern Hemisphere summer.

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It is a "nearby star" at only 25.3 light years distance, and together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the brightest stars in the Sun's neighbourhood.

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Vega is a vertex of the Summer Triangle, which consists of Vega (in Lyra), Deneb (in Cygnus) and Altair (in Aquila). This triangle is very recognisable in the northern skies for there are few bright stars in its vicinity.

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Its spectral class is A0V (Sirius, an A1V, is slightly less powerful) and it is firmly in the main sequence, fusing hydrogen to helium in its core. Since more powerful stars use their fusion fuel more quickly than smaller ones, Vega's life time is only one billion years, a tenth of our Sun's. Vega is two and a half times more massive than our Sun and burns at fifty times the power.

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In about AD 14,000, Vega will become the North Star, owing to the precession of the equinoxes. See Polaris for more information.

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Professional astronomers have used Vega for the calibration of absolute photometric brightness scales. When the magnitude scale was fixed, Vega happened to be close to zero magnitude. Therefore the visual magnitude of Vega was decided to be, by definition, zero at all wavelengths (this is no longer the case, as apparent magnitude is now most commonly defined in terms of the flux from the star). It also has a relatively flat electromagnetic spectrum in the visual region (wavelength range 350-850 nanometers, most of which can be seen with the human eye), so the flux densities are roughly equal, 2000-4000 Jy. The flux density of Vega drops rapidly in the infrared, and is near 100 Jy at 5 micrometres.

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The name Vega comes from the Arabic word waqi meaning "falling", via the phrase نسر الواقع an-nasr al-wāqi?, translated "the swooping vulture". As part of the constellation Lyra it represents a jewel set in the body of the harp.

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Alpha: The first letter of the Greek alphabet, Α α, also has some cultural meanings; see alpha (letter)....

Star: :This article is about celestial bodies....

Constellation: A constellation is a group of stars visibly related to each other in a particular configuration. In three-dimensional space, most of the stars we see have little relation to one another, but can appear to be grouped on the celestial sphere of the night sky. Humans excel at finding patterns and throu...

Vega related Images and Photos (experimental)

Vega-Nor	Paz Vega	Alexa Vega	Suzanne Vega: Beauty & Crime CD
Suzanne Vega: Beauty & Crime CD	Vega$: The First Season, Volume 2 DVD	Lope Feliz de Vega Carpio Spanish Writer	Portrait of Lope Felix De Vega Carpio circa 1630
Portrait of Lope Felix De Vega Carpio