Star definition: Stars are gaseous spheroidal celestial objects, within which reign pressures and high temperatures, particularly near the nucleus where thermonuclear reactions take place, releasing energy that propagates to the outer layers and surrounding space as electromagnetic radiation.
Nothing in the universe remains unchanged, and stars are no exception. But we cannot observe a star changing because it lives for billions and billions of years. The origin of all stars are gas and dust clouds that slowly form scattered atoms in space. The stars arise in groups, most of which is divided, but others are held together by gravity. The lifetime of a star depends on its mass. The more mass, the more quickly it uses hydrogen fuel, and shorter their tempestuous life.Some are simply so huge they explode. But most, like our sun, have a stable lifetime, strongly shining.
Meet the Top 20 of the biggest stars of this, which is our Universe.
1. WOH G64
Author European Southern Observatory
WOH G64 is a red hypergiant star in the Large Magellanic Cloud. With 2000 times the radius of the Sun, is the largest known star.
The size of WOH G64 is estimated at 2.985 billion kilometers She is one of the largest stars known.
2. VV Cephei
VV Cephei is a binary system located in the Cepheus constellation.
The system consists of the stars VV Cephei A (red giant) and a partner named VV Cephei blue B. The system is located approximately 8359 years light from the solar system. It is 6327 million (pronounced six hundred thirty-two million seven hundred thousand) times greater than Earth. VV Cephei A has a volume of approximately 6,000,000,000 (six billion) suns.
3. NML Cygni or V1489 Cygni
NML Cygni or V1489 Cygni is a red hypergiant star. It is one of the largest stars known, with about 1650 sunbeams or 7.67 AU. It is one of the brightest supergiants. Its distance from Earth is estimated at 1.6 kpc or about 5 300 light-years.
4. V354 Cephei
V354 Cephei is a red hypergiant star existing in the Milky Way. Is about 9000 light years away from the Sun and is currently considered the fourth largest known star, with with a diameter of 2,116,600,000 km , 1520 times bigger than the Sun. If it were placed in the center of the solar system, its surface would extend between the orbit of Jupiter and Saturn.
5. KW Sagitarii
KW Sagitarii is an hypergiant red star. It is approximately 9800 years light away from the Sun. It is one of the largest stars known.
It is approximately 9800 years light away from the Sun. It is one of the largest stars known, with a diameter 1460 times bigger than the Sun approximately and a volume of 3 billion Suns. The light of this star shines 370,000 times more than our Sun. It is located in the constellation Sagittarius.
6. VY Canis Majoris
Humphrey Model: VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) is a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major. It is one of the largest known stars, with a radius of approximately 1420 sunbeams. A team of astronomers led by Roberta Humphreys, University of Minnesota, originally estimated 1800-2100 sunbeam radius, which would make it the largest known star Radius. However, a more recent study from direct observations estimated a radius of 1420 ± 120 sunbeam.
Massey-Levesque-Plez Model: A team of astronomers led by Roberta Humphreys, University of Minnesota, originally estimated a radius 1800-2100 sunbeam to VY Canis Majoris, which would make it the largest known star Radius. However, a more recent study from direct observations estimated a radius of 1420 ± 120 sunbeam.
7. KY Cygni
KY Cygni is a red hypergiant star (spectral class M3M) located in the constellation Cygnus. It is one of the largest stars known, with a diameter of approximately 1420 times bigger than the sun and its shines 300,000 times more than the Sun. It is approximately 5200 light years from the Sun.
8. Mu Cephei (μ Cep, μ Cephei)
Mu Cephei (μ Cep, μ Cephei), also known as Herschel’s Garnet Star is a red super giant star located in the constellation Cepheus. It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known in the Milky Way. Has a spectral classification of M2 Ia.
Since 1943, the spectrum of this star has served as the basis by which other stars are classified. The color of Mu Cephei was noted by William Herschel, who described it as “a red and deep color”.
9. 72 Leonis
72 Leonis lives in the constellation Leo. It is a red bright giant star with a brightness of apparent visual magnitude of 4.56. Its projected Galactic orbit carries it between 21,200 and 25,300 light years from the center of the Galaxy. It is moving at a speed of 37.4 km/s relative to the Sun.
10. V509 Cassiopeiae
V509 Cassiopeiae hypergiant is a yellow-white F-type star with an apparent magnitude of +5.10 in the constellation of Cassiopeia. 10 – V509 Cassiopeiae (V509 Cas) is a star in the constellation Cassiopeia.
V509 Cassiopeiae hypergiant is a yellow-white F-type star with an apparent magnitude of +5.10. Is around 7800 light years from Earth. It is classified as a semiregular variable star and its brightness varies from magnitude +4.75 to +5.5.
11. Theta Muscae
Theta Muscae ( θ Mus , Muscae θ ) is a triple star system in the constellation Musca.
With a combined apparent magnitude of 5,53,1 is only visible to the naked eye under excellent viewing conditions. But its primary component is the second brightest star in the sky Wolf- Rayet (second only to Gamma Velorum ).
Wolf-Rayet stars are blue supergiants at an advanced stage of evolution that have lost their outer layers and are emitting heavy core elements, mainly carbon this case, apart from a strong stellar wind.
Theta Muscae is too far from Earth to have its distance measured by the parallax method, but this value was estimated at around 7 500 light years (2300 pc).
This triple -star system comprises a spectroscopic binary and farthest blue super giant. A spectroscopic binary is formed by the Wolf-Rayet star of spectral type WC5 / 6, and a star of the class of main sequence spectral type O6/O7V. They are separated by 0.5 AU and completes an orbit every 19.14 days. 46 milliseconds from the arc (corresponding to 100 AU) of the pair is the blue supergiant, which has spectral type of O9.5/B0Iab.
The three stars are very bright, and together have probably more than one million times the luminosity of the Sun.
All of them have more than 10 times the solar mass, and therefore may end their lives as supernovae.
12. V838 Monocerotis
V838 Monocerotis is a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Monoceros, with an apparent magnitude of +15.74. It is indicated as one of the strangest stars of the Milky Way, and one of the brightest of our Galaxy. It is a variable star, at a distance of about 20 000 light years from the Sun (6 kpc). Suffered a major eruption in 2002. Originally, it was a typical nova. Because of the eruptions, is completely changed. There were several eruptions followed, including a stellar eruption reporting a death process, and merged from a binary star or planets.
13. V382 Carinae
V382 Carinae, also known in the Bayer designation as x Carinae (Car x), is a star located in the constellation of Carina. It is located 5930.90 light years away from Earth. This star is classified as a Cepheid variable star, and its brightness varies from magnitude +3.84 to +4.02.
14. Antares (α Scorpii, Alpha Scorpii)
Antares (α Scorpii, Alpha Scorpii) is a red giant star in the constellation Scorpius. It is the 16th brightest star in the night sky (although it is sometimes considered the 15th, if the two brightest components of the star Capella are counted as one star). Conjunction with Aldebaran, Spica, and Regulus, Antares is one of the four brightest stars near the ecliptic. Antares is a star of slow variability with an apparent magnitude of +1.09.
15. Alpha Orionis (α Orionis)
Alpha Orionis (α Orionis), known as Betelgeuse, is a star with variable brightness, being the 10th or 12th brightest star in the firmament. It is also the second brightest star in the Orion constellation. Despite the designation α (“alpha”), according to Rating Bayer, it is not as bright as Rigel (β Orionis).
Betelgeuse is actually brighter than Rigel in infrared wavelength, but not in the visible wavelengths.
16. S Pegasi (S Peg)
S Pegasi (S Peg) is a long-period variable Mira that takes 319.22 days per period. It has a wide magnitude of 8-13, and has 580 times the radius of our Sun. It is located in the constellation of Pegasus.
17. S Doradus
S Doradus is the brightest star in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. Being a hypergiant, is one of the most luminous stars known (something brighter than absolute magnitude -10, but is so far away that is invisible to the naked eye).
We can find it in the extreme northern sky in the constellation Dorado, right ascension 5h 18.2 m, declination -69 ° 15 ‘.
This star belongs to its own eponymous class of variable stars, the S Doradus (these classes are usually baptized with the name of their prototypes), also called the LBV (luminous blue variable).
S Doradus has long and slow brightness variations in a 40 year cycle, punctuated by occasional eruptions.
18. T Cephei
T Cephei is a red giant star in the Cepheus constellation, 685.22 years light from Earth.
It is a Mira-type variable extremely red, whose distinctive brightness varies between 5.40 and 10.9 magnitude at about 388.1 days. It is a star of spectral class M, whose radius is 540 times larger than our Sun.
Meeting coordinates: Lat: 88.346 °, Long: -47.756 °
It has a rotational speed of 20 km / s and a radial of -3.4 km / s.
19. S Orionis (S Ori)
S Orionis (S Ori) is a red giant star in the Orion constellation. It is a variable Mira star, with a cycle of 420 days, and its radius varies from 1.9 to 2.3 astronomical units.
20. Gamma Velorum (ou Regor)
Gamma Velorum is a star system in the constellation of Vela. With apparent magnitude of +1.75, is one of the most shiny stars of the night sky. Has other proper names as Suhail or Al Suhail al-Muhlif (not to be confused with the name Suhail which can also be other stars like Lambda Velorum).
Its most accepted popular name now is Regor, which is the opposite of Roger, in honor of astronaut Roger Chaffee. It is located about 813 light-years from our Sun.
It is a system formed by six stars. The brightest member, γ ² Velorum or γ Velorum A, is currently a spectroscopic binary consisting of a blue supergiant of spectral type O9 (30 M ☉), and a massive star Wolf-Rayet star, the heaviest known (10 M ☉, originally close to 40 M ☉). The binary has an orbital period of 78.5 days and a separation of 1 AU.
Gamma Velorum has a companion, the bright (apparent magnitude +4.2) ¹ γ Velorum or γ Velorum B, it’s blue-white subgiant of spectral type B. It is separated from binary Wolf-Rayet by 41.2 “, and their distance can be observed with binoculars.