Vega's proper motion is 202.03 ± 0.63 milli-arcseconds (mas) per year in right ascension—the celestial equivalent of longitude—and 287.47 ± 0.54 mas/y in declination, which is equivalent to a change in latitude. [53] In 1983, Vega became the first star found to have a disk of dust. Vega used to be the North Star, but 12,000 years of Earth's precession has altered its place in the celestial sphere. However, continuous production of the amount of dust observed over the course of Vega's lifetime would require an enormous starting mass—estimated as hundreds of times the mass of Jupiter. This dusty disk would be relatively young on the time scale of the star's age, and it will eventually be removed unless other collision events supply more dust. Deneb and Vega, together with the bright star Altair in Aquila, the Eagle, down towards the horizon (halfway between Vega and Jupiter), form a shape called the Summer Triangle. [102][103] The Arabic name then appeared in the western world in the Alfonsine Tables,[104] which were drawn up between 1215 and 1270 by order of Alfonso X. The pole of Vega—its axis of rotation—is inclined no more than five degrees from the line-of-sight to the Earth. [14][19][33] Henry Draper took the first photograph of a star's spectrum in August 1872 when he took an image of Vega, and he also became the first person to show absorption lines in the spectrum of a star. Vega is at the top of the triangle, with Deneb below it and to the left and Altair below both stars and to the right. The Summer Triangle is an asterism that includes three bright stars in the night sky: Vega, Deneb, and Altair. The Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) discovered an excess of infrared radiation coming from the star, and this was attributed to energy emitted by the orbiting dust as it was heated by the star. To the ancient Greeks, the constellation Lyra was formed from the harp of Orpheus, with Vega as its handle. The local surface gravity at the poles is greater than at the equator, which produces a variation in effective temperature over the star: the polar temperature is near 10,000 K, while the equatorial temperature is about 8,152 K.[11] This large temperature difference between the poles and the equator produces a strong gravity darkening effect. Vega is easy to spot at this time of year. [69], When the radius of Vega was measured to high accuracy with an interferometer, it resulted in an unexpectedly large estimated value of 2.73 ± 0.01 times the radius of the Sun. Vega is easily one of the most visible stars in the night sky, but its importance goes much further. [95] The issue of possible clumps in the debris disc was revisited in 2007 using newer, more sensitive instrumentation on the Plateau de Bure Interferometer. Dust would collect in orbits that have mean-motion resonances with this planet—where their orbital periods form integer fractions with the period of the planet—producing the resulting clumpiness. [27], Vega can often be seen near the zenith in the mid-northern latitudes during the evening in the Northern Hemisphere summer. To standardize the magnitude scale, astronomers chose Vega to represent magnitude zero at all wavelengths. By robhatherton, June 3, 2013 in Getting Started With Imaging. Eventually this function became denoted by the Pleiades. Using the NARVAL spectropolarimeter of the Bernard-Lyot telescope on top of the Pic du Midi (France), astronomers clearly observe the This is in contrast to the Sun, which has a radiation zone centered on the core with an overlying convection zone. [20] Similar lines had already been identified in the spectrum of the Sun. The traditional name Vega (earlier Wega[14]) comes from a loose transliteration of the Arabic word wāqi‘ meaning "falling" or "landing", via the phrase an-nasr al-wāqi‘, "the falling eagle". The direction of the Earth's axis of rotation gradually changes over time in a process known as the precession of the equinoxes. Vega has been extensively studied by astronomers, leading it to be termed "arguably the next most important star in the sky after the Sun". [19][20] It was one of the first stars whose distance was estimated through parallax measurements. At the measured distance of Vega, this corresponded to an actual radius of 80 astronomical units (AU), where an AU is the average radius of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. With the viewing angle and rotation rate of Vega now better known, this will allow improved instrument calibrations.[72]. The overlying atmosphere is in radiative equilibrium. [45] However, the flux density of Vega drops rapidly in the infrared, and is near 100 Jy at 5 micrometers. [47] This is a category of stars that oscillate in a coherent manner, resulting in periodic pulsations in the star's luminosity. The current age of this star is about 455 million years, or up to about half its expected total main-sequence lifespan. Thus the variability was thought to possibly be the result of systematic errors in measurement. They coincidentally lie along the same line of sight. [14], This star lies at a vertex of a widely spaced asterism called the Summer Triangle, which consists of Vega plus the two first-magnitude stars Altair, in Aquila, and Deneb in Cygnus. Vega: The bright star that could have a family of planets (and even its own Earth twin) Astronomers have discovered evidence of an asteroid belt surrounding the star … Vega is a bright star located just 25 light-years from Earth, visible in the summer sky of the Northern Hemisphere. The stars of the Summer Triangle are each part of their own constellation, Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila. The winter constellations are out and planets are shining bright. From Earth, Vega is observed from the direction of one of these poles. Astronomy & Astrophysics journal publishes the first detection of a magnetic field on the bright star Vega. (2012)[97] and the Herschel Space Telescope. it is about three times bigger than the sun and classified by astronomers as Type A star, meaning that it is younger but hotter than the sun. In astronomy, those elements with higher atomic numbers than helium are termed "metals". This star is relatively close at only 25 light-years from the Sun, and, together with Arcturus and Sirius, one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood. The Summer Triangle is one of the most familiar patterns in the northern summer night sky.. The first person to publish a star's parallax was Friedrich G. 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