Vega is a Rapidly Rotating Star

A stars most important attributes are its mass, temperature, radius, composition, and rate of rotation. The Sun, for example, rotates once every 28 days, which implies a surface speed of about 2 kilometers per second at the equator. However, there are stars that rotate over 100 times faster. NRL scientists have recently shown that Vega, the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, is a member of this class of rapidly rotating stars. Due to its brightness, Vega has often been used as a standard for calibration purposes assuming it is a slowly rotating star, although there have been problems. The scientists have resolved these problems using the Navy Prototype Optical Interferometer to make observations showing that Vega is a rapid rotator with its axis of rotation pointing nearly directly at the earth. The techniques developed in the course of this work may someday be used to image objects in geosynchronous orbit.