Short answers, pulled from the story.
William Bond and John Adams Whipple captured the first daguerreotype image of Vega on the 17th of July 1850 at the Harvard College Observatory. This event marked the first time any star other than the Sun had been photographed.
Vega has a spectral class of A0V making it a blue-tinged white main-sequence star with an expected lifespan of roughly one billion years. The current age of this star is about 700 million years which represents half its total main-sequence lifespan.
Vega rotates with a period of 16.3 hours which is much faster than the Sun's rotational period. Observations confirm that the equator bulges outward due to centrifugal effects creating an oblate shape similar to Jupiter and Saturn.
The name Vega derives from the Arabic term Al Nesr al Waki which appeared in the Al Achsasi al Mouakket star catalogue. Translated into Latin as Vultur Cadens the phrase means falling eagle or vulture.
The Infrared Astronomical Satellite discovered an excess of infrared radiation coming from the star in 1983. This discovery marked the first time a star was found to have a disk of dust surrounding it.