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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 ...
Mass loss is largest for high-luminosity stars with low surface gravity and enhanced levels of heavy elements in the photosphere. R136a1 loses 1.6 × 10 −4 M ☉ ( 3.21 × 10 18 kg/s ) per year, over a billion times more than the Sun loses, and is expected to have shed about 35 M ☉ since its formation.
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.
Once considered as having the largest angular diameter of any star in the sky after the Sun, Betelgeuse lost that distinction in 1997 when a group of astronomers measured R Doradus with a diameter of 57.0 ± 0.5 mas, although R Doradus, being much closer to Earth at about 200 ly, has a linear diameter roughly one-third that of Betelgeuse. [137]
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]
WOH G64 (IRAS 04553-6825) is an unusual [7] [3] yellow hypergiant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) satellite galaxy in the southern constellation of Dorado.. WOH G64 is surrounded by an optically thick dust envelope of roughly a light year in diameter, containing 3 to 9 times the Sun's mass of expelled material that was created by the strong stellar wind. [9]