- M. Kornmesser, ESO
Astronomers at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom announced today that they’ve discovered the BIGGEST STAR EVER. R136a1 is 265 times bigger than the sun (astronomers have previously assumed the largest a star could get is 150 times bigger), and it’s 10 million times brighter and seven times hotter. Even though it’s fucking huge, you can’t see it without a telescope, because it’s 165,000 light years away from the Milky Way, located in the awesome-sounding Tarantula Nebula. This star is the first of its kind ever discovered, and has been termed a “hypergiant.” The study’s coauthor Richard Parker told this to National Geographic:
“Because there are so very few places where there is enough gas that can collect and form such massive stars, we may very well be seeing the limit of how large a star can get… This fast-burning stellar giant, however, may be large enough to actually completely blow itself apart in a titanic explosion without leaving behind any corpse whatsoever. We are fortunate to have caught sight of it when we did.”
In related news, you are a tiny and insignificant part of this universe.
ht: National Geographic and CNN
Neato! According to my slide ruler R136a1 is actually 265.1812823 times larger than our Sun!
“We just discovered that stars can get bigger than we thought they could. What this means is that we now know how big stars can get. Until we find a bigger one. But for now, this is totally as big as stars can get.”
Slide rulers are accurate only to three significant figures, Steve.
And yes, I still have the K+E Log Log Duplex Decitrig my mother bought for me in high school.
Eyes now are too dim to read that last figure, however.