About Vega
Vega is a rare star. It lies about 25 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Lyr, shines at apparent magnitude 0.03 and has spectral type A0Vvar.
Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Rare star 37 EP
Vega
RA 279.2346° · Dec 38.7837° · star
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 46 pts → Epic
- Brilliant (mag < 1) +18
- Naked-eye visible +8
- Has a proper name +8
- Star +3
Total score 37
9 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star · +3
- Naked-eye visible · +8
- Brilliant (mag < 1) · +18
- Has a proper name · +8
Trivia
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Hopelessly far for any craft humanity can build today.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 440.1 thousand years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 39.1 thousand years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
- At 10% light speed. ≈ 250 years in a starship at a tenth of light speed.
- Distance. 25 light-years from Earth.
Look-back time
- Look-back time. The light you'd see left around the year 2001.
Saying hello
- Say hello. A radio message and its reply would take 50.1 years round-trip.
How we found it
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- absmag
- 0.604
- bv
- -0.001
- constellation
- Lyr
- dist ly
- 25.0445
- mag
- 0.03
- name
- Vega
- named
- yes
- spect
- A0Vvar
How to see it
Look for Vega in the constellation Lyr. At apparent magnitude 0.03, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Vega is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why Vega is a rare star
Vega scores 37 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 9 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star, Naked-eye visible, Brilliant (mag < 1) and Has a proper name — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.