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With an apparent magnitude of +2.87 (absolute magnitude = −2.39), it is the brightest and most luminous star in the Pleiades. The spectral type of B7IIIe indicates that emission lines are present in its spectrum. Like many Be stars, Alcyone has created a gaseous disk flung into orbit around the star from its equator.
V838 Monocerotis (Nova Monocerotis 2002) is a cataclysmic binary star in the constellation Monoceros about 19,000 light years (6 kpc) from the Sun.The previously unremarked star was observed in early 2002 experiencing a major outburst, and was one of the largest known stars for a short period following the outburst. [10]
The last stars in the list are familiar nearby stars put there for comparison, and not among the most luminous known. It may also interest the reader to know that the Sun is more luminous than approximately 95% of all known stars in the local neighbourhood (out to, say, a few hundred light years), due to enormous numbers of somewhat less ...
Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only 25 light-years (7.7 parsecs) from the Sun, and one of the most luminous stars in the Sun's neighborhood.
The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements hydrogen and helium; they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere.All heavier elements, colloquially called metals in stellar astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant.
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 .
The star is a luminous blue variable, and one of the most luminous stars known, having a luminosity varying widely above and below 1,000,000 times the luminosity of the Sun, although it is too far away to be seen with the naked eye.
By January 2020, Betelgeuse had dimmed by a factor of approximately 2.5 from magnitude 0.5 to 1.5 and was reported still fainter in February in The Astronomer's Telegram at a record minimum of +1.614, noting that the star is currently the "least luminous and coolest" in the 25 years of their studies and also calculating a decrease in radius. [66]