Vega: The North Star of the Past and the Future

[Judi Lynn]

By Elizabeth Howell, Space.com Contributor | November 9, 2018 06:51pm ET

Vega is a bright star located just 25 light-years from Earth, visible in the summer sky of the Northern Hemisphere. The star is part of the constellation Lyra and, with the stars Deneb and Altair, forms an asterism known as the Summer Triangle.

The star is only about 450 million years old, which makes it a youngster compared to our own solar system (which is 4.6 billion years old). Studies of Vega help astronomers learn more about solar systems that are in the early stages of their formation.

Because the Earth's axis wobbles, our perception of north gradually shifts to different stars over a 26,000-year cycle. Vega was the North Star several thousand years ago, and it will regain that status in about 12,000 years.

Locating Vega
Vega is almost directly overhead at midnorthern latitudes on midsummer nights. Vega sinks below the horizon for only 7 hours a day and can be seen on any night of the year.

- click for image -

https://img.purch.com/h/1400/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5zcGFjZS5jb20vaW1hZ2VzL2kvMDAwLzA0MS84NzEvb3JpZ2luYWwvdmVnYS1seXJhX3NreS1tYXAuanBnPzE0MDk4NjMxMjg=

More:
https://www.space.com/21719-vega.html

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Only 450 million years old??

Dear lord, that's a toddler among stars!

I do know that the Pleiades are only about 100 million years old, which means that the earliest dinosaurs would not have seen them.

[salvagemax2018]

2. Thank you Judi, for everything,

I regularly forward your posts to my 87 year old mother who is in a nursing home, she loves them.....

[LuvNewcastle]

3. It was also a car made by Chevrolet in the 1970's --

a very shitty car.