Which star is 1000 times larger than the sun. The largest stars in the universe
The stars are huge balls of burning plasma. However, everything except the Sun appears as tiny points of light in the sky. Our Sun is not the largest or smallest star in the universe.
It's called a yellow dwarf. It is much larger than all the planets put together, but not even the average size by the standards of all stars. There are many, many more massive and larger than the sun... Some are larger because they have evolved in this way since their inception. Others are larger because they age and expand with age.
UY Shield
A bright red supergiant star located in the constellation of the Shield and is currently considered the largest star in the galaxy Milky Way.
German astronomers originally discovered this star at the Bonn Observatory in 1860, but only when astronomers observed the UY Shield through a telescope in the Atacama Desert in Chile in 2012, the true size of the star has become well documented.
Following this discovery, UY Shield was officially named the largest known star in the galaxy, surpassing previous record holders such as Betelgeuse and VY. Big Dog.
Although there are stars that are brighter and denser than Shield UY, it has the largest overall size of any stars currently known, with a radius of 1708 ± 192 R. This figure is 1,054,378,000 to 1,321,450,000 miles, which is about 1,700 times the radius of our Sun and 21 billion times the volume.
If UY Shield were to swap places with our Sun, then the star would swallow the entire orbit of Jupiter, swallowing the Sun, the first five planets of our Solar system and the asteroid belt.
Betelgeuse
It is known that Betelgeuse is easy to see in the Earth's night sky from October to March. It is known to have a radius a thousand times that of our Sun, and is the most famous of the red supergiants. This is due in part to the fact that Betelgeuse is approximately 640 light-years from Earth compared to other stars on this list.
In addition, it is located in perhaps the most famous of all the constellations, Orion. This massive star lies somewhere between 950 and 1200 solar radii and is expected to go supernova at any time.
VY Big Dog
This red hypergiant is one of the largest known stars in our galaxy. Estimated radius 1800 to 2100 times the radius of the Sun.
At this size, it would almost reach the orbit of Saturn if it were placed in our solar system. VY Canis Major is located approximately 3900 light-years from Earth. It is one of many variable stars that appear in the constellation Canis Major.
VV Cephei
This star is located in the direction of the constellation Cepheus, approximately 6,000 light years from Earth. It is a red hypergiant star, about a thousand times the radius of the Sun.
It is actually part of a binary star system; its companion is a small blue star. The two orbits each other in a complex dance. No planets have been found on this star. And in the name of the star is assigned to the largest of the pair, and now it is known as one of the largest such stars in the Milky Way.
Mu Cephei
This red supergiant is roughly 1,650 times the radius of our Sun. It is also one of the most bright stars in the Milky Way galaxy, where the sun is 38,000 times brighter.
It also has a nickname "Star of the Herschel Pomegranate" due to its rather reddish color.
V838 Unicorn
Located in the direction of the constellation Unicorn, this red variable star is about 20,000 light-years from Earth. Due to the distance from the Sun, its actual the size is difficult to determine.
It also pulsates in size and has been smaller in apparent size since its last outbreak in 2009. Therefore, the range is usually given from 380 to 1970 solar radii.
V354 Cephei
This red hypergiant, slightly smaller than the WOH G64, has 1520 solar radii. V354 Cepheus is located in the constellation Cepheus, about 9000 light-years from Earth. It is an irregular variable, which means that it pulsates on a slightly erroneous schedule.
Astronomers who study this star closely have determined that it is part of a large group of stars called the Cepheus OB1 stellar association, which contains many hot massive stars as well as a number of cooler supergiants such as this one.
RW Cephei
This star may not seem so big in its area, but there are not many others in our galaxy or nearby that could compete with it.
The radius of this red supergiant is about 1600 solar radii. If it were in the place of our Sun, its outer atmosphere would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter.
KY Swan
The star is 1,420 times the radius of the Sun, but by some estimates it looks more like 2,850 times the radius of the Sun. This is probably closer to the smaller size.
It is located approximately 5000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. Unfortunately, there is currently no good image for this star.
Look up at the night sky and see that it is filled with stars. But with the naked eye, you can only see a microscopic fraction of them. In a galaxy alone, there are up to 100 billion stars, and there are even more galaxies in the Universe. Astronomers believe that there are about 10 ^ 24 stars in the world. These the most powerful power plants are the most different colors and sizes - and next to many of them, our Sun looks like a crumb. But which star will be the real giant of the heavens? We should start by defining what we mean by a giant. Will it be the star with the largest radius, for example, or the largest mass?
Galactic giants
The star with the largest radius is probably UY Shield, an alternating bright supergiant in the constellation of Shield. Located 9,500 light years from Earth and composed of hydrogen, helium and other heavier elements, almost the same as our Sun, this star circumambulates it 1708 (plus or minus 192) times in radius.
The star's circumference is about 7.5 billion kilometers. You will have to fly an airplane for 950 years to fully fly around it - and even light will take six hours and 55 minutes. If we replace our Sun with this, its surface would be somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn. Of course, the Earth would not exist then.
Considering its huge size and possible mass, 20-40 times higher than the solar one (2-8 × 10³¹kg), the UY of the Shield will have a density of 7 × 10⁻⁶ kg / m³. In other words, it is billions of times less than the density of water.
Basically, if you put this star in the largest water bath in the universe, it would theoretically float. A million times less dense than the Earth's atmosphere at room temperature, it would also hang in the air as balloon- if, of course, you can find enough space for it.
But if these incredible facts have already managed to surprise you, we have not even started yet. UY Shield, of course big star but far from being a heavyweight. The king of the heavyweights is the star R136a1, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 165,000 light years away.
Massive attack
This star, a sphere of hydrogen, helium and elements is heavier, not much larger than the Sun, 35 times larger than it in radius, but 265 times more massive than it - which is remarkable, given that over 1.5 million years of its life it has already lost 55 solar masses.
The Wolf-Rayet type of stars is far from stable. They look like a blurry blue sphere without a clear surface, blowing out incredibly powerful stellar winds. Such winds move at a speed of 2,600 km / s - 65 times faster than the Juno probe, the fastest man-made object.
As a result, the star loses mass at a rate of 3.21 × 10¹⁸ kg / s, which is equivalent to terrestrial losses in 22 days.
Such space rock stars quickly burn out and die quickly. R136a1 emits nine million times more energy than our Sun, and would appear 94,000 times brighter than the Sun to our eyes if it were to take its place. In fact, it is the brightest star discovered.
its surface is over 53,000 degrees Celsius (), and such a star will live no more than two million years. Her death will mark a colossal supernova explosion that will not even leave a black hole behind.
Of course, next to such giants, our Sun looks insignificant, but, again, it will also grow as it ages. In about seven and a half billion years, it will reach its maximum size and become a red giant, expanding so much that the current orbit of the Earth will be inside the star.
And yet we found these stars by studying only a small fraction of the universe. What other miracles await us?
My 6-year-old daughter is a question-asking machine. A couple of days ago, we were driving from school, and she asked me about nature. One of her questions was, " What is the largest star in the universe? "I gave a simple answer." The universe is a big place, "I said," and there is no way we can know which star is the biggest"But that's not the real answer.
Radius and mass of the Sun:
When it comes to the size of stars, it's important to first look at ours for a sense of scale. Our star has a diameter of 1.4 million kilometers. This is such a huge number that it is difficult to get an idea of the scale. By the way, the Sun accounts for 99.9% of all matter in ours. In fact, you could fit a million within the volume of the sun.
Using these values, astronomers have created the concepts of "solar radius" and "solar mass", which they use to compare larger or smaller stars and masses with our Sun. The solar radius is 690,000 km and the solar mass is 2 x 10 30 kg. This is 2 nonillion kilograms, or 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
An illustration of a Morgan-Keenan spectral diagram showing the difference between main sequence stars. Credit: Wikipedia Commons.
It is also worth considering the fact that our Sun is quite small, it is a G-class main sequence star (in particular, the G2V star), which is widely known as and is located on the smaller side of the size chart (see above). Although the Sun is definitely larger than the most common M-class stars, or red dwarfs, it is itself dwarf (no pun intended!) Compared to blue giants and other spectral types of stars.
Classification:
Stars are grouped based on their characteristics, such as spectral class(i.e. color), temperature, size and brightness. The most common classification method is called the Morgan-Keenan (MK) system, which classifies stars based on temperature using the letters O, B, A, F, G, K, and M, where O are the hottest stars and M are coldest. Each alphabetic class is subdivided into numerical subclasses from 0 (hottest) to 9 (coldest). That is, the hottest stars are O1, and the coldest stars are M9.
In the Morgan-Keenan system, the luminosity class is added using Roman numerals. This is done on the basis of a certain width of absorption lines in the spectrum of the star, which vary with the density of the atmosphere, which distinguishes giant stars from dwarfs. Luminosity has classes 0 and I for hyper- and supergiants; classes II, III and IV for bright, normal giants and subgiants, respectively; class V for main sequence stars; and classes VI and VII apply to subdwarfs and dwarfs.
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram showing the relationship between star color, luminosity, and temperature. Credit: astronomy.starrynight.com.
There is also a Hertzsprung-Russell diagram concerning the stellar classification by absolute magnitude (i.e., true brightness), luminosity, and surface temperature. The same classification is used for spectral types starting with blue and white at one end to red at the other, which then combines the stars in absolute magnitude, placing them on a 2D plot (see above).
On average, Class O stars are hotter than stars of other classes, reaching effective temperatures up to 30,000 Kelvin. At the same time, they are larger and more massive, reaching sizes over 6.5 solar radii and up to 16 solar masses. At the lower end of the diagram, K- and M-class stars (orange and red dwarfs) are usually colder with temperatures ranging from 2400 to 5700 Kelvin, which is 0.7 - 0.96 from and somewhere 0.08 - 0. 8 from the solar mass.
Based on the complete classification of our Sun (G2V), we can say that it is a main sequence star with a temperature of about 5800 Kelvin. Now consider another famous star system in our galaxy - Eta Carinae- a system containing at least two stars located at a distance of 7,500 light-years from us in the direction of the constellation Carina. Main star this system is estimated to be 250 times the size of the Sun, has a mass of at least 120 solar masses, and a million times brighter than the Sun, making it one of the largest and brightest stars ever observed.
Eta Carinae, one of the most massive stars known, is located in the constellation Carinae. Credit: NASA
There is currently debate over the size of this star. Most stars emit stellar wind (the same as), losing mass over time. But This Kiel so large that it dumps 500 times more mass annually. With such a loss of mass, astronomers find it difficult to accurately measure where a star ends and the stellar wind begins. In addition, scientists believe that This Kiel will explode in the not so distant future, and it will be the most spectacular that people have ever seen.
In terms of net mass, first place goes to star R136a1 located at a distance of 163,000 light years from us. It is believed that this star may contain 315 solar masses, which is a mystery to astronomers, since they believe that stars can contain a maximum of only 150 solar masses. The answer is that star R136a1 formed, in all likelihood, when several massive stars merged together. Needless to say, R136a1 can explode any day like.
In terms of large stars, a good (and popular) example is Betelgeuse... Located in the shoulder of Orion, this famous supergiant has a radius of approximately 950-1200 solar radii, at which radius the Sun would swallow in our solar system. In fact, whenever we want to put the size of our Sun in perspective, we often use Betelgeuse for this (see below).
However, even after we use this clumsy red giant to compare the Sun to large stars, there are still larger stars. Consider star WOH G64, a red supergiant located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, approximately 168,000 light-years from Earth. With a diameter of 1540 solar radii, this star is currently the largest star known to us in the universe.
But there is also RW Cephei, an orange hypergiant in the constellation Cepheus, located 3500 light years from Earth and measuring 1535 solar radii in diameter. Star Westerland 1-26 (Westerlund 1-26) unusually large, it is a red supergiant (or hypergiant) located in the Westerlund 1 supercluster at a distance of 11,500 light years from us and measuring 1,530 solar radii in diameter. Meanwhile, stars V354 Cepheus and VX Sagittarius also have an enormous size of 1520 solar radii in diameter.
The biggest star of the UY Shield (UY Scuti)
The title of the largest star in the universe(which we know of) boils down to two contenders. For example, UY Shield Currently at the top of the list, located 9,500 light-years away in the constellation Shield, this bright red supergiant and pulsating variable star has an average radius of 1,708 solar radii - or 2.4 billion kilometers (15.9 AU) , thereby giving it a volume of 5 million times the volume of the Sun.
However, this average estimate includes an error of ± 192 solar radii, which means that the radius of this star can be either 1900 or 1516 solar radii. The bottom border places it on par with V354 Cepheus and VX Sagittarius... Meanwhile, the second largest star on the list of possible the largest stars- This NML Cygni (NML Cygni), a semi-regular variable star red hypergiant, located in the constellation Cygnus, 5300 light-years from Earth.
An enlarged view of the red giant UY Shield. Credit: Rutherford Observatory / Haktarfone.
Due to the location of this star in, it is heavily shaded by dust. As a result, according to astronomers' calculations, its size could be from 1642 to 2775 solar radii, which means that it could become the largest star known in the universe(with a reserve of about 1000 solar radii), or in reality the second largest, keeping up with UY Shield.
Just a few years ago the title the biggest star worn by VY Big Dog(VY Canis Majoris), a red hypergiant in the constellation Canis Major, located 5,000 light years from Earth. Back in 2006, Professor Robert Humphrey of the University of Minnesota calculated the upper limit of its size at 1540 larger than the Sun. Its average mass, however, was 1420 solar masses, which puts it in 8th place behind V354 Cepheus and VX Sagittarius.
The above were listed the biggest stars, which we know about, but there are probably dozens of larger stars hidden by dust and gas, so we cannot see them. But even if we cannot detect these stars, we can speculate on their likely size and mass. So how big can stars be? Once again, Professor Robert Humphrey from Minnesota gave the answer.
Comparison of the sizes of the Sun and VY of Canis Major, the star that once bore the title the largest known star in the universe... Credit: Wikipedia Commons / Oona Räisänen.
As she explained in her article, largest stars in the universe- the coldest. Therefore, although This Kiel is the brightest star we know of, it is extremely hot (25,000 Kelvin) and therefore only 250 solar radii in diameter. The largest stars on the contrary, they will be cold supergiants. As in the case VY Big Dog which has a temperature of 3500 Kelvin, and a really large star will be even colder.
At 3000 Kelvin, Humphrey estimates that the cold supergiant would be 2,600 times the size of the Sun. This is below the upper limit of the estimates for NML Swan, but higher than average ratings as for NML Swan and for UY Shield... Hence, this is the upper limit of a star (at least in theory and based on all the information we have to date).
But as we continue to peer into the Universe with all our telescopes and study it with robotic spacecraft and manned missions, you will surely find new amazing things that will amaze us further!
And be sure to check out this amazing animation below, which shows the sizes of various objects in space, from tiny to star UY Shield... Enjoy!
Title of the article you read "What is the largest star in the universe?".
Today you will learn about the most unusual stars. It is estimated that there are about 100 billion galaxies in the universe and about 100 billion stars in each galaxy. With so many stars, there must be strange ones among them. Many of the sparkling, burning gas balls are quite similar to each other, but some stand out for their strange size, weight and behavior. Using modern telescopes, scientists continue to study these stars to better understand them and the universe, but mysteries still remain. Curious about the weirdest stars? Here are the 25 most unusual stars in the universe.
25. UY Scuti
Considered a supergiant star, UY Scuti is so large that it can swallow our star, half of our neighboring planets, and virtually our entire solar system. Its radius is about 1,700 times the radius of the Sun.
24. Star of Methuselah
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The star of Methuselah, also called HD 140283, really lives up to its name. Some believe it is 16 billion years old, which is a problem since the Big Bang only happened 13.8 billion years ago. Astronomers have tried to use more sophisticated dating methods to better date the star, but still believe it is at least 14 billion years old.
23. Object of Torn-Zhitkov
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Originally suggested by the theory of Kip Thorne and Anna Zytkow, this object is two stars, a neutron supergiant and a red supergiant, combined into one star. A potential candidate for the role of this object was named HV 2112.
22. R136a1 
Photo: flickr
Although UY Scuti is the biggest star, known to man R136a1 is definitely one of the heaviest in the universe. Its mass is 265 times greater than the mass of our Sun. What makes her strange is that we don't know exactly how she was formed. The main theory is that it was formed by the merger of several stars.
21. PSR B1257 + 12
Photo: en.wikipedia.org
Most of the exoplanets in the solar system PSR B1257 + 12 are dead and bathed in lethal radiation from their old star. Amazing fact about their star is a zombie star or pulsar that has died, but the core still remains. The radiation emanating from it makes this solar system a no-man's land.
20. SAO 206462
Photo: flickr
Composed of two spiral arms spanning 14 million miles across, SAO 206462 is certainly the oddest and unique star in the universe. While some galaxies are known to have arms, stars usually do not. Scientists believe this star is in the process of creating planets.
19.2MASS J0523-1403
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
2MASS J0523-1403 is arguably the smallest known star in the universe, and it is only 40 light years away. Due to its small size and mass, scientists believe that it could be 12 trillion years old.
18. Heavy metal subdwarfs
Photo: ommons.wikimedia.org
Astronomers recently discovered a pair of stars with large amounts of lead in their atmosphere, creating thick and heavy clouds around the star. They are called HE 2359-2844 and HE 1256-2738, and they are located 800 and 1000 light years away, respectively, but you can simply call them heavy metal subdwarfs. Scientists are still not sure how they form.
17. RX J1856.5-3754
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
From the moment of their birth, neutron stars begin to continuously lose energy and cool down. Thus, it is unusual that a neutron star 100,000 years old, such as RX J1856.5-3754, could be so hot and show no signs of activity. Scientists believe that interstellar material is being held back by the star's strong gravitational field, generating enough energy to heat the star.
16.KIC 8462852
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
The star system KIC 8462852 has received close attention and interest from SETI and astronomers for its unusual behavior in recent times. Sometimes it dims by 20 percent, which could mean that something is revolving around it. Of course, this prompted some to conclude that these are aliens, but another explanation is the debris of a comet that entered the same orbit with the star.
15. Vega
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Vega is the fifth brightest star in the night sky, but that's not what makes it weird. The high rotation speed of 960,600 km per hour gives it the shape of an egg, and not spherical, like our Sun's. Temperature variations are also observed, with colder temperatures at the equator.
14. SGR 0418 + 5729
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
A magnet 6500 light-years from Earth, SGR 0418 + 5729 has the strongest magnetic field in the universe. The strange thing about it is that it does not correspond to the image of traditional magnetars with surface magnetic field like ordinary neutron stars.
13. Kepler-47
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
In the constellation Cygnus, 4,900 light-years from Earth, astronomers have discovered for the first time a pair of planets orbiting two stars. Known as the Kelper-47 system, orbiting stars eclipse each other every 7.5 days. One star is roughly the size of our Sun, but only 84 percent as bright. The discovery proves that more than one planet could exist in the stressful orbit of a binary star system.
12. La Superba
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
La Superba is another massive star located 800 light years away. It is about 3 times heavier than our Sun and is four astronomical units in size. It is so bright that it can be observed from Earth with the naked eye.
11. MY Camelopardalis
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
MY Camelopardalis was thought to be a lonely bright star, but later it was discovered that the two stars are so close that they practically touch each other. The two stars slowly join together to form one star. Nobody knows when they will completely merge.
10. PSR J1719-1438b
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Technically, PSR J1719-1438b is not a star, but it was once. When she was still a star, her outer layers were sucked away by another star, turning her into a small planet. What's even more surprising about this former star is that it is now a giant diamond planet five times the size of Earth.
9. OGLE TR-122b
Photo: Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Usually, the rest of the planets resemble pebbles against the background of the average star, but OGLE TR-122b is about the same size as Jupiter. That's right, this is the smallest star in the universe. Scientists believe it originated as a stellar dwarf several billion years ago, the first time they have discovered a star the size of a planet.
8.L1448 IRS3B
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Astronomers discovered the three-star system L1448 IRS3B as it began to form. Using the ALMA telescope in Chile, they observed two young stars orbiting a much older star. They believe that these two young stars emerged as a result of nuclear reaction with gas rotating around the star.
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Mira, also known as Omicron Ceti, is 420 light years away and is rather strange due to its constantly fluctuating brightness. Scientists consider it a dying star located on recent years own life. Even more surprising, it travels through space at a speed of 130 km per second and has a tail that spans several light years.
6. Fomalhaut-C
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
If you think the two-star system was cool, then you might want to see Fomalhaut-C. It is a three-star system only 25 light years from Earth. Although systems with triple stars are not entirely unique, this is because the location of the stars is far, not close to each other - an anomaly. The star Fomalhaut-C is especially far from A and B.
5. Swift J1644 + 57
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
A black hole's appetite is not picky. In the case of Swift J1644 + 57, the dormant black hole woke up and swallowed the star. Scientists made this discovery in 2011 using X-ray and radio waves. It took 3.9 billion light years for light to reach Earth.
4. PSR J1841-0500
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Known for their regular and constantly pulsating glow, they are rapidly rotating stars that rarely turn off. But PSR J1841-0500 surprised scientists by only doing it for 580 days. Scientists believe studying this star will help them understand how pulsars work.
3. PSR J1748-2446
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
The strangest thing about PSR J1748-2446 is that it is the fastest rotating object in the universe. It has a density 50 trillion times that of lead. To top it off, its magnetic field is a trillion times stronger than that of our Sun. In short, it is an insanely overactive star.
2. SDSS J090745.0 + 024507
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
SDSS J090745.0 + 024507 is the ridiculously long name for an escaped star. With the help of a supermassive black hole, the star flew out of its orbit and is moving fast enough to exit the Milky Way. Let's hope that none of these stars will rush in our direction.
1. Magnetar SGR 1806-20
Photo: Wikipedia Commons.com
Magnetar SGR 1806-20 is a terrifying force that exists in our universe. Astronomers detected a bright flash 50,000 light-years away, and it was so powerful that it bounced off the moon and illuminated the Earth's atmosphere for ten seconds. The solar flare has raised questions among scientists about whether such a flash could lead to the extinction of all life on Earth.
In fact, this question is not as simple as it seems. Determining the exact sizes of stars is very difficult, it is calculated based on a lot of indirect data, because we cannot see their disks directly. So far, direct observation of the stellar disk has been carried out only for a few large and close supergiants, and there are millions of stars in the sky. Therefore, it is not so easy to determine which is the largest star in the Universe - you have to rely mainly on the calculated data.
In addition, in some stars, the boundary between the surface and the huge atmosphere is very blurred, and where one ends and another begins is difficult to understand. But this is an error not for some hundreds, but for millions of kilometers.
Many stars do not have a strictly defined diameter, they pulsate, and become larger and smaller. And they can change their diameter very significantly.
Moreover, science does not stand still. More and more accurate measurements are being made, distances and other parameters are being refined, and some stars are unexpectedly much more interesting than they seemed. This also applies to sizes. Therefore, we will consider several candidates that belong to the largest stars in the Universe. Note that they are all not so far away in cosmic terms, and they are also the most big stars in the Galaxy.
A red hypergiant that claims to be the largest star in the universe. Alas, this is not so, but very close. In terms of size, it is in third place.
VV Cephei - that is, double, and the giant in this system is component A, and we will talk about it. The second component is an unremarkable blue star, 8 times the size of the Sun. But the red hypergiant is also a pulsating star, with a period of 150 days. Its dimensions can vary from 1050 to 1900 diameters of the Sun, and at its maximum it shines 575,000 times brighter than our star!
This star is 5,000 light years away from us, and at the same time in the sky it has a brightness of 5.18 m, that is, with a clear sky and good vision, it can be found, and even with binoculars it is generally easy.
UY Shield
This red hypergiant is also striking in its size. Some sites mention it as the largest star in the universe. It belongs to semi-regular variables and pulsates, so the diameter can vary - from 1708 to 1900 solar diameters. Just imagine a star 1900 times larger than our Sun! If you place it in the center of the solar system, then all the planets, up to Jupiter, will be inside it.
Sun, Sirius, Pollux, Arcturus, against the background of the UY Shield. It is probably the largest star in the universe.
In numbers, the diameter of this one of the most big stars in space - 2.4 billion kilometers, or 15.9 astronomical units. Inside it could fit 5 billion suns. It shines 340,000 times stronger than the Sun, although the surface temperature is much lower - due to its larger area.
At the peak of the brightness of the UY Shield, it is visible as a faint reddish star with a brightness of 11.2 m, that is, it can be seen through a small telescope, but it is not visible to the naked eye. The fact is that the distance to this large star is 9500 light years - we would not have seen another on it at all. In addition, there are dust clouds between us - if they were not there, UY Shield would be one of the brightest stars in our sky, despite the great distance to it.
UY Shield is a huge star. She can be compared with the previous candidate - VV Cepheus. At the maximum, they are about the same, and it is not even clear which one is greater. However, there is definitely an even bigger star!
VY Big Dog
The diameter of VY, however, according to some sources, is estimated at 1800-2100 solar, that is, it is a clear record among all other red hypergiants. If it were in the center of the solar system, it would swallow all the planets, along with Saturn. Previous candidates for the title of the largest stars in the Universe would also fit into it completely.
The light takes only 14.5 seconds to circle our Sun completely. The light would have to fly 8.5 hours to go around VY Big Dog! If you were to make such a flyby along the surface in a fighter jet, at a speed of 4500 km / h, then such a non-stop journey would take 220 years.
Comparison of the sizes of the Sun and VY Canis Major.
This star still raises a lot of questions, since its exact size is difficult to establish due to the diffuse corona, which has a much lower density than the solar one. And the star itself has a density thousands of times less than the density of the air we breathe.
In addition, VY Canis Major is losing its substance and has formed a noticeable nebula around itself. This nebula may now have even more matter than the star itself. In addition, it is unstable, and in the next 100 thousand years it will explode as a hypernova. Fortunately, it is 3,900 light years away, and the Earth is terrible explosion does not threaten.
This star can be found in the sky with binoculars or a small telescope - its brightness varies from 6.5 to 9.6 m.
What is the largest star in the universe?
We looked at some of the largest stars in the universe known to scientists today. Their sizes are amazing. All of them are candidates for this title, but the data is constantly changing - science does not stand still. According to some reports, UY Shield can also "swell" up to 2200 solar diameters, that is, it becomes even larger than VY Big Dog. On the other hand, there is too much controversy about the VY size of Canis Major. So these two stars are practically equal candidates for the title of the largest stars in the Universe.
Which of them turns out to be more in fact, will be shown by further research and clarifications. While the majority is inclined in favor of UY Shield, and you can safely call this star the largest in the Universe, it will be difficult to refute this statement.
Of course, talking about the entire Universe is not very correct. This is perhaps the largest star in our Milky Way galaxy known to scientists today. But since it has not yet been discovered yet larger, it is still the largest in the Universe.
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