The bright orange star is δ² Lyrae, a red giant star about 770 light years from Earth. It is not a member of the cluster, unlike its neighbor δ¹ Lyrae, a bright blue giant star about 1160 light years from Earth.
Click below to learn more about the stars that make up this constellation!
In order of brightness,
Vega (α Lyrae) is the bright star at the upper left of the image. It is the brightest star in Lyra, the fifth-brightest in the night sky, and the second-brightest visible in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a blue-white giant star about 25 light years from the Sun. It has about twice the mass and a little over twice the size of the Sun. The name comes from the Arabic word wāqi' meaning "falling" or "landing".
Sulafat (γ Lyrae) is the second brightest star, a blue giant star about 620 light years from Earth. It is about 6 times as massive and 13 times the size of the Sun. Its name comes from the Arabic word al-sulḥafāt meaning "turtle", connecting lyres with their material: tortoiseshell.
Sheliak (β Lyrae) is a multiple star system, consisting of six stars at a distance of about 960 light years from Earth. The primary star is a blue giant about 3 times the mass and 15 times the size of the Sun. The name comes from the Arabic word šiliyāq which was one of the names for Lyra in Arabic astronomy.
δ² Lyrae is a red supergiant star about 770 light years from the Sun. Although it is only 4.5 times as massive, it is almost 300 times the size of the Sun!
ζ¹ Lyrae is a binary star system about 156 light years from Earth. The primary is a blue-white chemically peculiar star about 2.5 times the size and mass of the Sun.
ε² Lyrae is a binary star system that forms one half of "the Double Double". This system lies about 156 light years from Earth. The primary is a blue-white giant star about 2.1 times the mass of the Sun.
ε¹ Lyrae is another binary system and the other half of "the Double Double". This system is marginally more distant at 162 light years away. The primary is a blue-white star about twice the mass of the Sun.
δ¹ Lyrae is the optical companion to δ² Lyrae; the two systems are unrelated. δ¹ Lyrae is a binary star system composed of a blue star and an orange giant. The entire system is about 1,160 light years away.
Finally, ζ² Lyrae is a single white-hued star about 158 light years from the Sun. It has about 1.75 times the mass of the Sun and is about twice as big.
