“Vega: The Brightest Star in the Summer Triangle Constellation Lyra”

SPACE — Vega, this beautiful blue-and-white star has a special place in the hearts of sky watchers around the world.

Vega is one of the stars known as the ‘Summer Triangle’. On a July evening, eastward at night there is a distinctive seasonal star pattern. The Summer Triangle consists of three stars namely Vega, Deneb and Altair.

They are the first three stars to light up the eastern sky after sunset. These stars can be seen even from light polluted cities, or on full moon nights.

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The blue-white Vega shines the brightest of the three stars in the Summer Triangle. Vega is the brightest light in the constellation Lyra the Harp. Therefore, Vega is also known as Alpha Lyrae. Vega is about 25 light years from Earth.

Vega is the fifth brightest star visible from Earth. Vega is also the third brightest star easily visible from mid-northern latitudes, after Sirius and Arcturus.

Why is Vega blue?

The star’s distinct blue color indicates a surface temperature of almost 9,400 Celsius, or about 4,000 C hotter than the sun. Vega has a diameter roughly 2.5 times that of the sun.

However, Vega’s internal pressure and temperature are much greater than that of the sun. This will cause it to burn its internal fuel faster. At only half a billion years old, Vega is already entering ‘middle age’.

This is in contrast to our middle-aged sun, which is 4.5 billion years old. Vega is only one-tenth the age of the sun, but Vaga will run out of fuel in just another half a billion years.

With a visual magnitude (visible brightness) of 0.03, Vega only appears slightly dimmer than the star Arcturus, but with a very different cool blue color.

Vega spins rapidly, making one full rotation on its axis once every 12.5 hours. In contrast, the sun takes 27 days to rotate once.