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The Question
(Submitted April 06, 1998)
I'm a junior in High School and I am trying to find information about the
star Vega. I know the basics but I just want to know more about this star.
The Answer
There are two good web sites for getting information about
specific stars:
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/ (http://www.astro.wisc.edu/%7Edolan/constellations/)
For more detailed information about particular stars (e.g. a star's
distance, magnitude, temperature, etc.), see
http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/~garrison/oh.html (http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/%7Egarrison/oh.html)
Vega is of particular interest because it was one of the first stars
for which a disk of dust was discovered surrounding a star. An infrared
excess was discovered about the star in 1983 when the Infrared Astronomical
Satellite (IRAS) observed it. This is indicative of dust surrounding the
star, and planets might form from this disk. Vega is also important because
it is used a standard calibration star in optical astronomy. It is used to
calibrate the color scale for stars.
Jim Lochner, Steve Bloom and Gail Rohrbach
for Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
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