In the vast night sky, where countless stars compete for attention, one colossus reigns supreme as the largest star in the universe. Located thousands of light-years away from Earth, the enormous size of this celestial giant poses a challenge to our understanding of stellar physics.
Most of the stars in our Milky Way may seem like just points of light, and even the most massive star is not as bright as distant stars like Betelgeuse or Sirius. Read on to learn more about UY Scuti, the biggest star we know of, and other stars like it.
Is the sun the biggest star?
If you don’t know much about space, your first guess might be that the sun is the largest star in the universe. Despite its central role in our solar system and its undeniable brightness that bathes the Earth in light, the Sun, compared to the vast carpet of stars in space, is far from having the title of largest star.
Through the lens of science, the Sun is classified as an average, medium-sized star, neither exceptionally large nor particularly small compared to the colossal stars scattered across the cosmos. Its prominence in our sky has more to do with its proximity to Earth than its physical stature.
So if the sun isn’t the biggest star, who has the title?
Unveiling UY Scuti: the biggest star
UY Scuti holds the prestigious title of the largest known star, a red supergiant star that dwarfs even the most luminous stars in our night sky. As a hypergiant star, UY Scuti’s immense size is almost incomprehensible, with a radius about 1,700 times greater than that of our Sun.
This means that if UY Scuti were placed at the center of our solar system, it would engulf the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars and possibly even Jupiter, illustrating the colossal size of this celestial behemoth.
UY Scuti’s enormous size puts it in a class of its own, far surpassing other notable stars such as Alpha Orionis, better known as Betelgeuse, in size. Although Betelgeuse is often celebrated for its enormous size and brightness, UY Scuti’s dimensions make it a giant among giants in the cosmic landscape.
The vast expanse of this red supergiant not only challenges our understanding of stellar evolution, but also ignites the imagination, offering a stark perspective on the enormous size of the universe and our place in it.
Who discovered UY Scuti?
The discovery of UY Scuti, the universe’s largest known star, is credited to astronomers at the Bonn Observatory in Germany. In 1860, through painstaking observations using the observatory’s powerful telescopes, these astronomers first cataloged UY Scuti as part of their extensive survey of the night sky.
The star, located in the constellation Scutum, did not immediately reveal its extraordinary size when first identified. Only with subsequent observations and advances in astrophysical techniques did the true size of UY Scuti begin to emerge.
The breakthrough in understanding the immense dimensions of UY Scuti came much later, with the advent of more advanced astronomical instruments and methods. By analyzing the star’s light and movements through space, astronomers were able to infer its size, classifying it as a red supergiant and ultimately recognizing it as the largest star in terms of physical size.
This discovery was a testament to the evolution of observational astronomy and the relentless pursuit of knowledge about the cosmos.
How do scientists measure the size of a star?
Scientists use a variety of advanced methods to measure the size of a star, combining the art of observation with the precision of modern science. This process involves collecting data from telescopes equipped to look deep into the cosmos, beyond the dust and gas spreading throughout the Milky Way.
light
One of the main techniques used is interferometry, which combines light from multiple telescopes to create a more detailed image of a star. This method allows scientists to determine the apparent size of the star with remarkable accuracy, even if it is thousands of light years away.
Furthermore, measuring a star’s brightness provides crucial clues about its size. By understanding a star’s intrinsic brightness and comparing it to its observed brightness from Earth, scientists can infer its distance and size. This calculation takes into account the light absorbed and scattered by interstellar dust, making the data reflect the star’s true characteristics.
Advances in the technology and science of spectroscopy, which analyzes how light interacts with matter, further refine these measurements by providing insight into the star’s temperature, composition and motion, all of which are integral to determining its size of it.
Specialized telescopes
Furthermore, the Hubble Space Telescope played a crucial role in this endeavor, providing previously unparalleled clarity and depth in observing distant stars. (The James Webb Space Telescope is now the latest and greatest in the field.)
Hubble’s ability to capture high-resolution images was crucial in refining measurements of the size of stars, including those of very massive stars, by penetrating the dust and gas of the Milky Way and revealing the cosmos beyond .
While this is an oversimplified explanation, it gives you a brief glimpse into how astronomers catalog the stars in the universe with astonishing precision.
Other huge stars
Exploring the cosmos reveals a range of very massive stars, each with unique characteristics and contributions to our understanding of stellar phenomena. Here’s a look at some of the most massive stars:
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WO G64: WOH G64, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is a red supergiant star shrouded in a thick dust cloud, making it one of the largest known stars by volume.
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WO 5170: WOH 5170, another celestial body of the Large Magellanic Cloud, is notable for its enormous size and is considered one of the largest stars discovered in this satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.
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RSGC1-F01: This red supergiant, a member of the RSGC1 star cluster, is one of the most massive stars in our Milky Way and shows the diversity of stellar evolution within dense stellar families.
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HD269551: A notable member of the Large Magellanic Cloud, this star is distinguished by its significant mass and brightness, providing insight into the life cycle of massive stars.
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VY Canis Majoris: Often cited as one of the largest known stars, VY Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant in the constellation Canis Major, known for its size and the complex nebula surrounding it.
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HD12463: HD 12463, located in the Milky Way, is a massive star that adds to the rich array of stars in our Milky Way, illustrating the characteristics of significant stellar mass and brightness.
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CM velorum: CM Velorum, a remarkable star in the constellation Vela, exhibits features typical of very massive stars, including high mass loss and enormous luminosity.
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AH Scorpio: AH Scorpii, a red supergiant in the constellation Scorpio, is notable for its size and the variability of its brightness, making it an interesting topic among astronomers.
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HV 888: Found in the Large Magellanic Cloud, this star adds to the collection of massive stars studied by astronomers and provides more data on the physical properties and evolution of major stellar bodies.
Each of these stars provides unique insight into the life cycle of the universe’s most massive stars, from their formation to their eventual demise, enriching our understanding of the cosmos.
How monster stars form
The formation of monster stars is a process that begins in the cold, dense cores of giant molecular clouds spread across galaxies, including our own Milky Way and the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud. These clouds of gas and dust become nurseries for star formation when regions within them collapse under their own gravity.
A massive star requires a significantly larger amount of material to form than average stars. As these regions collapse, they heat up and eventually ignite the nuclear fusion in their cores.
The process is more complex for supermassive stars, because their formation likely involves the merger of smaller stars in dense stellar environments or the accretion of exceptionally large amounts of material from their environment.
These processes result in the birth of massive star formation, creating the luminous, large stars that dominate their cosmic environment with their intense brightness and powerful winds, and shape the structure of their host galaxies.
What is the brightest star in the universe?
The title of the brightest star in the universe, in terms of intrinsic brightness, belongs to the luminous blue variable star Eta Carinae. Located about 7,500 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Carina, Eta Carinae surpasses our own sun by millions of times.
This stellar behemoth is undergoing a very volatile phase in its life, marked by dramatic fluctuations in brightness and massive outbursts. Eta Carinae’s brilliance is a product not only of its size, but also of its tumultuous nature, which expels significant amounts of its mass into space in spectacular eruptions.
These events have made Eta Carinae the subject of intense research as scientists try to understand the mechanisms that drive its instability and massive energy production, making it a beacon of stellar extremities in the cosmos.
What is the most massive star in the universe?
While the UY Scuti is the largest star, R136a1 is currently the most massive star in the universe. R136a1, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud about 165,000 light-years from Earth, belongs to the rare class of hypermassive stars, weighing more than 170 to 230 times the mass of our Sun.
The existence of such a star challenges previous theories about the limits of stellar mass and highlights the extreme conditions under which stars can form and exist.
The extraordinary mass of R136a1 results in an intense gravitational pull, which influences the environment and reveals the incredible diversity of stellar phenomena in the universe.
The study of such massive stars provides invaluable insights into the processes of star formation, evolution and the ultimate fate of the cosmos’ most massive stars.
This article was updated using AI technology, then fact-checked and edited by a HowStuffWorks editor.
Original article: The largest star in the universe is 1700x larger than our sun
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