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Below are lists of the largest stars currently known, ordered by radius and separated into categories by galaxy. The unit of measurement used is the radius of the Sun (approximately 695,700 km; 432,300 mi). [1] The Sun, the orbit of Earth, Jupiter, and Neptune, compared to four stars (Pistol Star, Rho Cassiopeiae, Betelgeuse, and VY Canis Majoris)
UY Scuti was analyzed to be the largest and the most luminous of the three stars measured, at 1,708 ± 192 R ☉ (1.188 × 10 9 ± 134,000,000 km; 7.94 ± 0.89 AU) based on an angular diameter of 5.48 ± 0.10 mas and an assumed distance of 2.9 ± 0.317 kiloparsecs (kpc) (about 9,500 ± 1,030 light-years) which was originally derived in 1970 ...
Stars that are at least sometimes visible to the unaided eye have their apparent magnitude (6.5 or brighter) highlighted in blue. The first list gives stars that are estimated to be 60 M ☉ or larger; the majority of which are shown. The second list includes some notable stars which are below 60 M ☉ for the purpose of comparison. The method ...
Size comparison of μ Cephei and the Sun. A very luminous red supergiant, Mu Cephei is among the largest stars visible to the naked eye, and one of the largest known cool supergiants. It is a runaway star with a peculiar velocity of 80.7 ± 17.7 km/s, [16] and has been described as a hypergiant. [4]
VY Canis Majoris (abbreviated to VY CMa) is an extreme oxygen-rich red hypergiant or red supergiant (O-rich RHG or RSG) and pulsating variable star 1.2 kiloparsecs (3,900 light-years) from the Solar System in the slightly southern constellation of Canis Major.
Because of their high masses, the lifetime of a hypergiant is very short in astronomical timescales: only a few million years compared to around 10 billion years for stars like the Sun. Hypergiants are only created in the largest and densest areas of star formation and because of their short lives, only a small number are known despite their ...
NML Cygni -- This red "hypergiant" star is the largest known to man with a diameter of more than 1.4 billion miles. That makes it 1,650 times as large as the sun.
AGB stars may develop spectra with a supergiant luminosity class as they expand to extreme dimensions relative to their small mass, and they may reach luminosities tens of thousands times the sun's. Intermediate "super-AGB" stars, around 7-9 M ☉, can undergo carbon fusion and may produce an electron capture supernova through the collapse of ...