What is Vega?

Vega is a star with a little more than twice the mass of the Sun, which is located 25.3 light -years in the constellation Lyra, Lyre. Together with Arcturus and Sirio, it is one of the brightest stars in our local neighborhood, which is the fifth brightest star in our sky. After Arcturus, Vega is another brightest star in the northern heavenly hemisphere. Together with the Sun, Vega is located in the local bubble, an area of ​​300 light -years universe across about 10% of the average density of interstellar medium.

Vega name comes from the Arabic word waqi means "fall". This is a reference to the time when people considered the constellation Lyra to be swooping vulture rather than on Lyra. Vega is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra and the highlight of the summer triangle, asterism, where it connects the constellation Aquila, Cygnus and Lyra. In about 12,000 years, Vega will become the new North Star due to the precession of the Ekvinoxs, the amine change in the star samples due to the changing tendency of the Earth's rotary axis.

Although Vega mass is just twice the mass of the sun, it has 30 times larger. Because more massive stars burn their hydrogen fuel faster, the estimated life of Vega is about one billion years, a tenth of the sun. After using most of the hydrogen in its core, it begins to connect helium and expand to become a red giant. The remainder of the white dwarf will remain an oxygen and an envelope of the star will be released to form a planetary nebula.

For many years, Vega has been used to represent 0 on the scale of astronomical brightness, with brighter stars than Vega having negative values ​​and weaker stars than Vega with positive values. Only the sun, Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus and Alpha Centauri are brighter stars.