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Hydra is the largest constellation, covering more than 1 ⁄ 32 of the night sky and 19 times the area of Crux, the smallest constellation. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) designates 88 constellations of stars.
The Greek constellation of Hydra is an adaptation of a Babylonian constellation: the MUL.APIN includes a "serpent" constellation (MUL.DINGIR.MUŠ) that loosely corresponds to Hydra. It is one of two Babylonian "serpent" constellations (the other being the origin of the Greek Serpens), a mythological hybrid of serpent, lion and bird. [2]
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)
This list only concerns "living" stars – those which are still seen by Earth-based observers existing as active stars: Still engaged in interior nuclear fusion that generates heat and light. That is, the light now arriving at the Earth as images of the stars listed still shows them to internally generate new energy as of the time (in the ...
UY Scuti (BD-12°5055) is a red supergiant star, located 5,900 light-years away in the constellation Scutum.It is also a pulsating variable star, with a maximum brightness of magnitude 8.29 and a minimum of magnitude 10.56, which is too dim for naked-eye visibility.
In Shinto, the seven largest stars of Ursa Major belong to Ame-no-Minakanushi, the oldest and most powerful of all kami. In South Korea, the constellation is referred to as "the seven stars of the north". In the related myth, a widow with seven sons found comfort with a widower, but to get to his house required crossing a stream.
SN 1006 was a supernova that is likely the brightest observed stellar event in recorded history, reaching an estimated −7.5 visual magnitude, [3] and exceeding roughly sixteen times the brightness of Venus.
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.