Vega
Vega, brightest star in the northern constellation Lyra and fifth brightest in the night sky, with a visual magnitude of 0.03. It is also one of the Sun’s closer neighbours, at a distance of about 25 light-years. Vega’s spectral type is A (white) and its luminosity class V (main sequence). It will become the northern polestar by about ad 14,000 because of the precession of the equinoxes. Vega is surrounded by a disk of circumstellar dust that may be similar to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.
Citation Information
Article Title:
Vega
Website Name:
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Publisher:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Date Published:
26 June 2026
Access Date:
November 14, 2026