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UY Scuti is the largest star in the Universe: description and characteristics of the star with photo, location in the constellation, distance from Earth, list of the most big stars.
It's easy to feel tiny when looking at the night sky. You just need to select an object for comparison. How about a star? Just look into the territory of the Scutum constellation and you will find the largest star in our galaxy and visible Universe - UY Scutum.
In 1860, the star was found by German scientists at the Bonn Observatory. But only in 2012 it was possible to conduct a survey with the Very Large Telescope (Atacama Desert). Since its discovery, it has become the largest star in size, surpassing Betelgeuse, VY Canis Majoris and NML Cygnus.
Of course, there are record holders for brightness and density, but UY Scuti has the largest overall size, with a radius of 1,054,378,000 - 1,321,450,000 miles, which is 1,700 times the Sun.
People think that the Earth is huge. But let's take an 8-inch ball. Then, in terms of scale, the Sun will be 73 feet in diameter, which is greater than the height of the White House. Now let's put UY Shield next to it and get a diameter of 125,000 feet.
What happens if you put UY Scutum in the solar position? The star will dine on the first five planets and leave the orbital path of Jupiter. But many people think that it is even capable of crossing the orbit of Saturn.
Well, let’s be glad that the star is still not located in the Solar System and is 9500 light years away.
It is important to emphasize that with the improvement of terrestrial instruments, we are discovering new objects that are distant over long distances. This means that one day we may come across an even bigger star.
It is worth noting that the largest known stars are represented here, since many objects remain outside the field of view. Also, some of these are variables, which means they are constantly compressing and expanding. Now you know what the biggest star in space is. Let's look at the rest of the ten biggest stars in the universe:
List of the largest stars in the Universe
The radius of the red supergiant VY Canis Majoris reaches 1800-2100 solar, making it the largest in the galaxy. If placed in place, it would cover the orbital path. Located 3900 light years away in the constellation Canis Major.
It is a red supergiant, 1000 times the radius of the Sun. Located 6000 light years away. Presented binary system, where the main star is accompanied by a small blue one.
Mu Cephei
Mu Cephei is a red supergiant whose radius is 1,650 times larger than the Sun's and 38,000 times brighter.
V 838 Monoceros is a red variable star located 20,000 light years away. It can reach the size of Mu Cephei or VV Cepheus A, but the large distance makes it difficult to determine accurately. The range covers 380-1970 solar radii.
A red supergiant that is 1540 times larger than the solar radius. Located in the constellation Dorado.
V354 Cephei
A red supergiant, 1520 times the solar radius. Located 9000 light years away in the constellation Cepheus.
KY Swan
1420 times larger than the solar radius, although some estimates put the figure at 2850 times. The star is located 5,000 light years away and has not yet been able to obtain a clear image.
KW Sagittarius
The red supergiant is 1,460 times larger in radius than the Sun. Located 7800 light years away.
RW Cepheus
A red supergiant with a radius of 1600 solar. From the position of the Sun, it could reach the orbital path of Jupiter.
A red supergiant whose radius is 1000 times greater than the Sun. This is the most popular star, as it is located quite close (640 light years) in . It can transform into a supernova at any moment.
Determining the largest star in the Universe, its size and mass has always been not easy for scientists. The angular sizes of stars are so small that even the largest telescopes cannot see stars in the form of round disks. Accordingly, the sizes of stars cannot be determined even with the largest telescope. Scientists have learned to determine the sizes of the largest stars based on the three most well-known methods:
- By observing the eclipse of the earth's satellite, the Moon, scientists have learned to determine the angular size, and, knowing the distance to the object, it is possible to determine its true, linear dimensions;
- You can determine the size of a star using special stellar optical interferometers. The operating principle of these devices is based on the interference of starlight, which is reflected by a pair of widely spaced mirrors.
- The size of a star can also be calculated theoretically, based on estimates of the total luminosity and temperature of stars according to the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The luminosity of a star is related to the radius of the star by the formula L = ?T4 4?R2 or
This method allows you to find the radius of a star from its temperature and luminosity, since the parameters R, L and T are known.
What is a star?
Star - a luminous gas (plasma) celestial body formed from a gas-dust environment in which thermonuclear reactions occur.
Sun - a typical dwarf star of spectral class G2, with a radius of 696 thousand km.
The largest star is a red hypergiant, although the difficulty of determining the exact size of most stars means that it is impossible to say with much certainty which star is the largest in the universe.
Red hypergiants are stars in the very last stages of evolution. When the supply of hydrogen used as a source nuclear energy in the central part of the star's core begins to deplete, a stage of internal changes begins, as a result of which the outer layers of the star greatly expand. A red hypergiant star consists of a vast shell of very tenuous gas surrounding the central core of the star.
Hypergiants - these are stars of enormous size and mass, having a luminosity class of 0 on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (the diagram shows the relationship between absolute stellar magnitude, spectral class, luminosity, and surface temperature of the star), hypergiant stars are defined as the most powerful, heaviest, brightest and at the same time the rarest and shortest-lived supergiants.
Which star is considered the largest in the universe?
The equatorial radius of the Sun is used as a unit for measuring the radius of stars - 695,500 km.
As mentioned above, the exact order of sizes of the largest stars is difficult to determine, because many large stars have extensive atmospheres and opaque dust shells and disks, or even pulsate.
In the very first place in a number of the largest stars in the universe is the star
VY Canis Majoris(lat. VY Canis Majoris, VY CMa). The distance from Earth to the largest star in the universe, VY Canis Majoris, is approximately 5,000 light years. The radius of the star was determined in 2005 and is in the range of 1800-2100 solar radii. The mass of the largest star is ~15-25 solar masses.
The second largest star in space belongs to the star WOH G64, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. The radius is 1738 solar radii.
In third place is a large star VV Cephei A, with a radius of 1600-1900 radii of Sontz.
In fourth place is the star Mu Cephei(? Cep / ? Cephei), better known as Herschel's Garnet Star, is a red supergiant star located in the constellation Cepheus. The radius of the star is 1650 radii of the star called the Sun.
Star takes fifth place KY Swan- a star located in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 5153 light years from us. This is one of the largest stars known to science. Radius 1420 solar radii. 
Planet size ratio solar system and some well-known stars, including VY Canis Majoris:
1.Mercury
5.Aldebaran
6.Betelgeuse
What is the heaviest (massive) star in the Universe?
On June 21, 2010, astronomers led by Paul Crowther, professor of astrophysics at the University of Sheffield, while studying a huge number of star clusters, discovered a star whose mass greatly exceeds the mass of the Sun.
Scientists have discovered several stars with surface temperatures of more than 40,000 degrees. This is more than seven times hotter than the Sun and several million times brighter. Some of these stars were born with masses greater than 150 solar masses.
The heaviest star was named R136a1, from the RMC 136a cluster (better known as R136), a cluster of young, massive and hottest stars, located inside the Tarantula Nebula, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 165,000 light-years from planet Earth. The R136a1 star is one of the most powerful stars in the universe, with a luminosity 10 million times greater than the Sun. R136a1 has a mass of 265 solar masses and a radius of 67 solar radii.
What is the closest star to the Solar System?
The closest star to Earth after the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.243 ± 0.002 light years from Earth, which is 270,000 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. The star Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star orbiting the Alpha Centauri system.
The mass of Proxima Centauri is 0.123±0.006 solar masses, which is 7 times less than the mass of the Sun and 150 times more than the mass of the planet Jupiter. Age 4.85?109 years. Temperature 3042 ± 117 K. Radius 0.145 ± 0.011 solar radii, i.e. the actual diameter is 7 times smaller than the diameter of the star Sun and only 1.5 times the diameter of the planet Jupiter.
What is the brightest star in the night sky?
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, from the constellation Canis Major. The star Sirius can be observed from almost any region of the Earth, with the exception of only its northernmost regions. Sirius is one of the stars closest to us and is only 8.6 light years away from the Solar System. The brightness of Sirius exceeds the brightness of the Sun by 23 times. Sirius originally consisted of two powerful blue stars of spectral class A, now the age of this double star is about 230 million years.
The brightest star in the universe is the star Pollux in the constellation Gemini. Although it is very difficult to determine the brightest star. Also competing in the list of the brightest stars are the following stars: Shaula (constellation Scorpio); Gacrux (constellation of the Southern Cross); Castor (in the constellation Gemini). The Pistol Star is one of the brightest stars in our Galaxy. The luminosity of the Pistol star exceeds 1.7 million luminosities of the Sun, i.e. in 20 seconds, the Pistol star emits as much light as the Sun emits in a whole year.
What is the biggest star in the Universe?
Determining the largest star in the Universe, its size and mass has always been not easy for scientists. The angular sizes of stars are so small that even the largest telescopes cannot see stars in the form of round disks. Accordingly, the sizes of stars cannot be determined even with the largest telescope. Scientists have learned to determine the sizes of the largest stars based on...
Life on our entire planet depends on the Sun, and sometimes we don't realize that there are actually many other galaxies in and within the Universe. And our almighty Sun is just a small star among billions of other luminaries. Our article will tell you the name of the largest star in the world that can still be grasped by the human mind. Perhaps beyond its borders, in hitherto unexplored worlds, there exist even more gigantic stars of immense size...
Measure stars in Suns
Before we talk about the name of the largest star, let us clarify that the size of stars is usually measured in solar radii; its size is 696,392 kilometers. Many of the stars in our galaxy are in many ways larger than the Sun. Most of them belong to the class of red supergiants - large massive stars with a dense hot core and a rarefied envelope. Their temperature is noticeably lower than the temperature of blue ones - 8000-30,000 K (on the Kelvin scale) and 2000-5000 K, respectively. Red stars are called cold, although in fact their temperature is slightly lower than the maximum in the core of our Earth (6000 K).
Most celestial objects do not have constant parameters (including size), but rather are in constant change. Such stars are called variables - their sizes change regularly. This can happen for various reasons. Some variable stars are actually a system of several bodies exchanging mass, others pulsate due to internal physical processes, contracting and expanding again.
What is the name of the largest star in the Universe?
At a distance of 9.5 thousand light years from the Sun it appears on star maps in late XVII century, thanks to the Polish astronomer Jan Hevelius. And two hundred years later, German astronomers from the Bonn Observatory added the star UY Scuti (U-Igrek) to the catalog. And already in our time, in 2012, it was established that UY Scuti is the largest known star within the studied Universe.
The radius of UY Scuti is about 1700 times greater than the radius of the Sun. This red hypergiant is a variable star, which means its size can reach even larger values. During periods of maximum expansion, the radius of the UY Scutum is 1900 solar radii. The volume of this star can be compared to a sphere, the radius of which would be the distance from the center of the Solar system to Jupiter.
Giants of the Cosmos: what are the largest stars called?
The neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is home to the second largest star in space studied. Its name cannot be called particularly memorable - WOH G64, but you can take note that it is located in the constellation Doradus, constantly visible in the southern hemisphere. It is slightly smaller in size than UY Scutum - about 1500 solar radii. But it has an interesting shape - the accumulation of a rarefied shell around the core forms a spherical shape, but rather resembles a donut or bagel. Scientifically, this shape is called a torus.
According to another version, as the largest star after UY Scutum is called, VY Canis Majoris is in the lead. It is believed that its radius is 1420 solar. But the surface of VY Canis Majoris is too rarefied - the Earth’s atmosphere is several thousand times denser than it. Due to difficulties in determining what is the actual surface of the star and what is its accompanying shell, scientists cannot come to a final conclusion regarding the size of VY Canis Majoris.
The heaviest stars
If we consider not the radius, but the mass celestial body, then the largest star is called as a set of letters and numbers in encryption - R136a1. It is also located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, but belongs to the type blue stars. Its mass corresponds to 315 solar masses. For comparison, the mass of UY Shield is only 7-10 solar masses.
Another massive formation is called Eta Carinae - a double giant star in the 19th century, as a result of an explosion around this system, a nebula was formed, named Homunculus because of its strange shape. The mass of Eta Carinae is 150-250 solar masses.
The largest stars in the night sky
Hiding in the depths of space, giant stars are inaccessible to the eye of the common man - most often they can only be seen through a telescope. At night, in the starry sky, the brightest objects closest to the Earth - be they stars or planets - will appear large to us.
What is the name of the largest star in the sky and at the same time the brightest? This is Sirius, which is one of the stars closest to Earth. In fact, in size and mass it is not particularly larger than the Sun - only one and a half to two times. But its brightness is really much greater - 22 times greater than that of the Sun.
Another bright and therefore seemingly large object in the night sky is actually not a star, but a planet. We are talking about Venus, whose brightness is in many ways superior to other stars. Its shine is visible closer to sunrise or some time after sunset.
The Sun is about 110 times larger than the Earth. It is even larger than the giant of our system - Jupiter. However, if you compare it with other stars in the Universe, our luminary will take a place in the manger kindergarten, that's how small it is.
Now let's imagine a star that is 1500 times larger than our Sun. Even if we take the entire solar system, it will be a point against the background of this star. This giant is called VY Canis Major, whose diameter is about 3 billion km. How and why this star was blown to such dimensions, no one knows.
And a bit more...
The supergiant VY Canis Majoris is 5000 light years away. In 2005, the diameter of the star was determined to be approximately 1800 to 2100 solar radii, that is, 2.5 to 2.9 billion kilometers in diameter. If this hypergiant from the constellation Canis Major is placed in the center of the solar system, that is, instead of the Sun, then the star will occupy all the space up to Saturn itself!
Even if you fly at the speed of light, you can fly around a star in only 8 hours, and at supersonic speed, that is, 4500 km/h, it will take 230 years.
It is interesting that with such a supergiant size, the star does not weigh that much, only about 30-40 solar masses. This suggests that the density in the interior of the star is very low. If you calculate the weight and size, then the density comes out to be about 0.000005, that is, one cubic kilometer of the star will weigh about 5-10 tons.
There is endless debate about the star VY Canis Majoris. According to one version, this star is a large red hypergiant, according to another, it is a supergiant whose diameter is 600 times larger than the Sun, and not, as is customary, 2000 times.
The star VY Canis Majoris, as studies have shown, is quite unstable. Astronomers studied the star using Hubble telescope predicted that the star would explode within the next 100 thousand years. The explosion will produce a burst of gamma radiation that will destroy all life within a radius of several light years. This radiation does not threaten us in any way, because the hypergiant is too far from Earth.
Clickable 4000px
The image shows one of the most complete maps of our Universe. Each point on it is a separate galaxy, as huge as our own Milky Way. The dark zone on the galactic equator is an artifact of our own location: we can see galaxies in the equatorial sector of the sky only in a narrow interval from 120° to 240°, and even then - poorly, due to the fact that the galactic equator is densely packed with stars and interstellar gas of our planet. own galaxy, the Milky Way, which absorbs radiation from distant galaxies.
Because of this, in the direction of the core of our galaxy we do not see anything at all, but in the opposite side, which is closed from us only by the loose sleeve of Perseus, we can still see something. But to the galactic north and galactic south we have the opportunity to survey the Universe for millions and billions of light years. (
One of the popular ways of presenting information today is to compile ratings - finding out the tallest person in the world, the longest river, the oldest tree, etc. There are such ratings in the world of astronomy - the science of stars.
From school lessons We know well that our Sun, which gives our planet heat and light, is very small on the scale of the Universe. Stars of this type are called yellow dwarfs, and among the countless millions of stars there are many much larger and more spectacular astronomical objects to be found.
"Stellar" life cycle
Before looking for the biggest star, let's remember how stars live and what stages they go through in their development cycle.
As is known, stars are formed from giant clouds of interstellar dust and gas, which gradually become denser, increase in mass and, under the influence of their own gravity, compress more and more. The temperature inside the cluster gradually increases, and the diameter decreases.
The phase indicating that an astronomical object has become a full-fledged star lasts 7-8 billion years. Depending on the temperature, stars in this phase can be blue, yellow, red, etc. The color is determined by the mass of the star and the flows in it. physical and chemical processes.
But any star eventually begins to cool down and at the same time expand in volume, turning into a “red giant”, with a diameter tens or even hundreds of times greater than the original star. At this time, the star can pulsate, either expanding or contracting in diameter.
This period lasts several hundred million years and ends with an explosion, after which the remnants of the star collapse, forming a dim “white dwarf”, neutron star or “black hole”.
So, if we are looking for the largest star in the Universe, then it will most likely be a “red giant” - a star in the aging phase.
Biggest star
Today, astronomers know quite a lot of “red giants,” which can be called the largest stars in the observable part of the Universe. Since this type of star is subject to pulsation, then different years The leaders in size were considered:
- KY Cygnus - the mass exceeds the mass of the Sun by 25 times, and the diameter is 1450 solar;
- VV Cepheus - with a diameter of about 1200 solar;
- VY Canis Majoris - considered the largest in our Galaxy, its diameter is about 1540 solar diameters;
— VX Sagittarius – the diameter at the maximum pulsation phase reaches 1520 solar;
— WOH G64 is a star from our closest neighboring galaxy, the diameter of which reaches, according to various estimates, 1500-1700 solar; 
— RW Cepheus – with a diameter of 1630 times the diameter of the Sun;
— NML Cygnus is a “red giant” with a circumference exceeding 1650 solar diameters;
- UV Scutum - today is considered the largest in the observable part of the Universe, with a diameter of about 1700 diameters of our Sun.
The heaviest star in the Universe
It is worth mentioning another champion star, which is designated by astronomers as R136a1 and is located in one of the galaxies of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Its diameter is not very impressive yet, but its mass is 256 times the mass of our Sun. This star violates one of the main astrophysical theories, which states that the existence of stars with a mass of more than 150 solar masses is impossible due to the instability of internal processes.
By the way, according to astronomical calculations, R136a1 lost a fifth of its mass - initially this figure was within 310 solar masses. It is believed that the giant was formed as a result of the merger of several ordinary stars, so it is not stable and can explode at any moment, turning into a Supernova.
Even today it is ten million times brighter than the Sun. If you move R136a1 into our galaxy, it will eclipse the Sun with the same brightness with which the Sun now eclipses the Moon.
The brightest stars in the sky
Of those stars that we can see with the naked eye in the sky, the blue giant Rigel (Orion constellation) and the red Deneb (Swan constellation) have. 
The third brightest is the red Betelgeuse, which together with Rigel makes up the famous Belt of Orion.