The science
Of course, the oceans are immense and the mountains are incredibly high. Moreover, the 7 billion people for whom the Earth is home is also an incredibly large number. But, living in this world with a diameter of 12,742 kilometers, it is easy to forget that this is, in essence, a trifle for such a thing as space. When we look into the night sky, we realize that we are just a grain of sand in the vast endless universe. We invite you to find out about the largest objects in space, the size of some of them is difficult for us to imagine.
1) Jupiter
The largest planet in the solar system (142,984 kilometers in diameter)
Jupiter is the largest planet in our star system. Ancient astronomers named this planet after the father of the Roman gods, Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. The planet's atmosphere is 84 percent hydrogen and 15 percent helium. Everything else is acetylene, ammonia, ethane, methane, phosphine, and water vapor.
Jupiter's mass is 318 times the mass of the Earth, and its diameter is 11 times larger. The mass of this giant is 70 percent of the mass of all planets in the solar system. Jupiter's volume is large enough to contain 1,300 Earth-like planets. Jupiter has 63 known moons, but most of them are incredibly small and fuzzy.
2) Sun
The largest object in the solar system (1,391,980 kilometers in diameter)
Our Sun is a yellow dwarf star, the largest object in the stellar system in which we exist. The sun contains 99.8 percent of the mass of this entire system, most of the rest of the mass is in Jupiter. Currently, the Sun is 70 percent hydrogen and 28 percent helium, the remaining matter is only 2 percent of its mass.
Over time, the hydrogen in the sun's core turns into helium. Conditions at the Sun's core, which is 25 percent of its diameter, are extreme. The temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin and the pressure is 250 billion atmospheres. The energy of the Sun is obtained through nuclear fusion reactions. Every second, approximately 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen is converted into 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of gamma rays.
3) Our solar system
15 * 10 12 kilometers in diameter
Our solar system contains only one star, which is the central object, and nine major planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, as well as many satellites, millions of solid asteroids and billions of icy comets.
4) Star VY Canis Major
The largest star in the universe (3 billion kilometers in diameter)
VY Canis Majoris is the largest known star and one of the brightest stars in the sky. It is a red hypergiant located in the constellation Canis Major. The radius of this star is about 1800-2200 times greater than the radius of our Sun, its diameter is about 3 billion kilometers.
If this star were placed in our solar system, it would cover the orbit of Saturn. Some astronomers believe that VY is actually smaller - about 600 times the size of the Sun, and therefore would only reach the orbit of Mars.
5) Huge deposits of water
Astronomers have discovered the largest and most massive reserves of water ever found in the universe. The giant cloud, about 12 billion years old, contains 140 trillion times more water than all of Earth's oceans combined.
A cloud of gaseous water surrounds a supermassive black hole located 12 billion light-years from Earth. The discovery shows that water has predominated in the universe for almost all of its existence, the researchers said.
6) Extremely large and massive black holes
21 billion solar masses
Supermassive black holes are the largest black holes in the galaxy, with a mass of hundreds or even thousands of millions of solar masses. Most, and possibly all galaxies, including the Milky Way, are believed to contain supermassive black holes at their centers.
One such monster, which is 21 million times the mass of the Sun, is an egg-shaped funnel of stars in NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in a sprawling cloud of thousands of galaxies. The hole is located about 336 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Veronica. This black hole is so huge that it is 12 times the diameter of our solar system.
7) Milky Way
100-120 thousand light years in diameter
The Milky Way is a crossed spiral galaxy that contains 200-400 billion stars. Many planets revolve around each of these stars.
According to some estimates, 10 billion planets are in the habitable zone, revolving around their parent stars, that is, in zones where there are all conditions for the emergence of life, similar to the earth.
8) El Gordo
Largest cluster of galaxies (2 * 10 15 solar masses)
El Gordo is located more than 7 billion light-years from Earth, so what we are seeing today is just an early stage. According to the researchers who studied this galaxy cluster, it is the largest, hottest and emits the most radiation than any other known cluster at the same distance or further.
The central galaxy at the center of El Gordo is incredibly bright and has an unusual blue glow. The authors of the study suggest that this extreme galaxy is the result of a collision and merger of two galaxies.
Using the Spitzer Space Telescope and optical images, scientists estimate that 1 percent of the cluster's total mass is stars, with the rest being hot gas that fills the space between stars. This ratio of stars to gas is similar to that of other massive clusters.
9) Our Universe
Size - 156 billion light years
Of course, no one could ever name the exact dimensions of the Universe, but, according to some estimates, its diameter is 1.5 * 10 24 kilometers. In general, it is difficult for us to imagine that there is an end somewhere, because the Universe includes incredibly giant objects:
Earth diameter: 1.27 * 10 4 km
Sun diameter: 1.39 * 10 6 km
Solar system: 2.99 * 10 10 km or 0.0032 sv. l.
Distance from the Sun to the nearest star: 4.5 sv. l.
Milky Way: 1.51 * 10 18 km or 160,000 sv. l.
Local group of galaxies: 3.1 * 10 19 km or 6.5 million sv. l.
Local supercluster: 1.2 * 10 21 km or 130 million sv. l.
10) Multiple
You can try to imagine not one, but many Universes that exist at the same time. The Multiple Universe (or Multiple Universe) is an admissible cluster of many possible Universes, including our own, which collectively encompass everything that exists or can exist: the integrity of space, time, material matter and energy, as well as the physical laws and constants that make it all describe.
However, the existence of other universes besides ours has not been proven, so it is highly likely that our universe is one of a kind.
The universe is a very large place, and there is no way we can find out which star is the biggest. But what is the biggest star we know of?
Before we get to the answer, let's look at our own Sun for scale. Our mighty star is 1.4 million km across. This is such a huge distance that it is difficult to scale it. The sun makes up 99.9% of all matter in our solar system. In fact, there are one million Earth planets inside the Sun.
Astronomers use the terms "solar radius" and "solar mass" to compare larger and smaller stars, we will do the same. The solar radius is 690,000 km. One solar mass is 2 x 10 30 kilograms. This amounts to 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
One huge known star in our galaxy, Eta Carinae, is located 7,500 light-years from the Sun and weighs 120 solar masses. It is a million times brighter than the Sun. Most stars lose their mass over time, like the solar wind. But Eta Carinae is so big that every year it throws off a mass equal to 500 Earth masses. With so much mass lost, it is very difficult for astronomers to accurately measure where a star ends and its stellar wind begins.
Thus, the best answer from astronomers now is that the radius of Eta Carinae is 250 times the size of the Sun.
And one interesting note: This Carina is about to explode, it will be one of the most spectacular supernovae that humans have ever seen.
But the most massive star in the Universe is R136a1, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. There is controversy, but its mass may be more than 265 solar masses. And this is a mystery to astronomers, because theoretically the largest stars were thought to be about 150 solar masses, formed in the early Universe, when the stars were formed from hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. The answer to this controversy is that R136a1 may have been formed when several large stars merged together. Needless to say, R136a1 could explode into a hypernova any day.
In terms of large stars, let's look at a familiar star in the constellation of Orion, Betelgeuse. This red supergiant has a radius of 950 to 1200 times the size of the Sun, and would span Jupiter's orbit if placed in our solar system.
But this is nothing. The largest known star is VY Canis Major. A red hypergiant in the constellation Canis Major, located about 5,000 light-years from Earth. Professor Robert Humphreys of the University of Minnesota recently calculated its top size to be greater than 1,540 times the size of the Sun. If VY of Canis Major were placed in our system, then its surface would extend beyond the orbit of Saturn.
It is the largest star we know of, but the Milky Way probably has dozens of stars that further obscure the clouds of gas and dust, so we cannot see them.
But let's see if we can answer the original question, what is the largest star in the universe? Obviously, it is virtually impossible for us to find it, the universe is a very large place, and there is no way for us to peer into every corner.
The pistol is another star that is considered one of the largest.
The largest stars will be cold supergiants, according to theorists. For example, the temperature VY of Canis Major is only 3500 K. A really large star would be even colder. A cold supergiant with a temperature of 3000 K, would be 2,600 solar in size.
And finally, here's a great video that shows the size of various objects in space, from our tiny planet to VV Cepheus. VY Big Dog is not included in the animation, probably because they did not have new information on this star.
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 star will take a place in the nursery school, that is 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 Big dog, which is about 3 billion km in diameter. How and why this star was blown to such dimensions, no one knows.
And a bit more...
Hypergiant VY Canis Major is 5,000 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 space up to Saturn!
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 so much, only about 30-40 solar masses. This suggests that the density in the interior of the star is very low. If we calculate the weight and size, then the density is about 0.000005, that is, one cubic kilometer of a star will weigh about 5-10 tons.
There is endless controversy about the VY Star Big Dog. According to one version, this star is a large red hypergiant, according to another, it is a supergiant, which has a diameter of 600 times the Sun, and not, as is customary, 2000 times.
The VY Star Canis Major, as studies have shown, is rather unstable. Astronomers have studied the star with the Hubble Telescope and predicted that the star will explode in the next 100 thousand years. During the explosion, there will be a burst of gamma radiation that will destroy all life within a radius of several light years. This radiation does not threaten us with anything, because the hypergiant is too far from the 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 at 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 that is bad, due to the fact that the galactic equator is densely packed with stars and interstellar gas from our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which absorbs the radiation of distant galaxies.
Because of this, towards the nucleus of our galaxy, we do not see anything at all, but in the opposite direction, which is closed from us only by the loose sleeve of Perseus, we can still consider something. But to the galactic north and galactic south, we have the opportunity to survey the Universe for millions and billions of light years. (
Stars are large celestial bodies of incandescent plasma, the dimensions of which can amaze the most inquisitive reader. Are you ready to develop?
It should be noted right away that the rating was compiled taking into account those giants that mankind already knows about. It is possible that somewhere in outer space there are stars of even larger dimensions, but they are located at a distance of many light years, and modern equipment is simply not enough to detect and analyze them. It is also worth adding that the largest stars will eventually cease to be such, because they belong to the class of variables. Well, and do not forget about the probable errors of astrologers. So...
Top 10 largest stars in the universe
10
Opens a ranking of the largest stars in the Betelgeuse Galaxy, which is 1190 times the radius of the sun. Located approximately 640 light years from Earth. Comparing with other stars, we can say that at a relatively short distance from our planet. The giant red in the next few hundred years may turn into a supernova. In this case, its dimensions will increase significantly. For good reason, the star of Betelgeuse, occupying the last place in this rating, is the most interesting!
RW
An amazing star that attracts with its extraordinary glow color. Its size exceeds the dimensions of the sun from 1200 to 1600 solar radii. Unfortunately, we cannot say exactly how powerful and bright this star is, because it is far from our planet. Leading astrologers from different countries have been arguing about the history of the origin and distance of RW for many years. Everything is due to the fact that it regularly changes in the constellation. Over time, it may disappear altogether. But for now it is still in the top of the largest celestial bodies.
The next in the ranking of the largest known stars is KW Sagittarius. According to an ancient Greek legend, it appeared after the death of Perseus and Andromeda. This means that it was possible to discover this constellation long before our appearance. But unlike our ancestors, we know about more reliable data. It is known that the size of a star exceeds the Sun by 1470 times. Moreover, it is located relatively close to our planet. KW is a bright star that changes its temperature over time.
It is currently known for sure that the size of this large star exceeds the size of the Sun by at least 1430 times, but it is difficult to get an accurate result, because it is 5 thousand light-years from the planet. Even 13 years ago, American scientists gave completely different data. At that time, it was believed that the Cygnus KY has a radius that raises the Sun by a factor of 2850. Now we have more reliable dimensions relative to a given celestial body, which, for sure, are more accurate. Based on the name, you understand that the star is located in the constellation Cygnus.
A very large star included in the constellation Cepheus is V354, which is 1530 times the size of the Sun. At the same time, the celestial body is located relatively close to our planet, only 9 thousand light years away. It does not differ in particular brightness and temperature against the background of other unique stars. However, it belongs to the number of variable luminaries, therefore, the sizes can vary. It is likely that Cephei will not hold out in this position in the V354 rating for long. Most likely, the size will decrease over time.
A few years ago, it was believed that this red giant could become a competitor for VY Big Dog. Moreover, some experts conditionally considered WHO G64 to be the largest known star in our Universe. Today, in the age of the rapid development of technology, astrologers have managed to obtain more reliable data. It is now known that the Doradus's radius is only 1550 times the size of the Sun. This is how huge errors are permissible in the field of astronomy. Nevertheless, it is easy to explain the incident by distance. The star is outside the Milky Way. Namely, in a dwarf galaxy called the Huge Magellanic Cloud.
V838
One of the most unusual stars in the universe, located in the constellation of the Unicorn. It is located about 20 thousand light years from our planet. Even the fact that our specialists managed to find it is surprising. Luminary V838 is even more than that of Mu Cephei. It is quite difficult to make accurate calculations regarding the dimensions, due to the huge distance from the Earth. Speaking about the approximate data, the dimensions are from 1170 to 1900 solar radii.
There are many amazing stars in the constellation Cephei, and Mu Cephei is considered a confirmation of this. One of the largest stars is 1,660 times the size of the Sun. The supergiant is considered one of the brightest in the Milky Way. Approximately 37,000 times more powerful than the illumination of the most famous star, that is, the Sun. Unfortunately, we cannot say unequivocally at what distance from our planet Mu Cephei is located.