Newly discovered star is largest ever found

Pretty interesting. Apparently we've known about the star cluster for a while but the scientists were just recently able to pick specific stars out, and found several monster stars.

Star

Great find!

The awesome scale of these stars blows my mind...

reply to post by thedarklingthrush


The question I would ask why would a star be so big and some would

say why not. Maybe this is a no biological life zone within so many

billions of miles of this star or sun. What type of heat would a star of this

magnitude generate and could this be the home of only spiritual beings

with no material body? ^Y^

Any artist impressions as to comparisons of previously known giant star sizes.

Newly discovered star is largest ever found

By earthlings!

As long as no one say... WORMWOOD we'll be all set!

Great find...

peace



[edit on 21-7-2010 by silo13]

I remember seeing something about a star called VY Canis Majoris...so they have found something even bigger than that?
Now that is pretty impressive for a star wow.

Originally posted by arcana_imperii
I remember seeing something about a star called VY Canis Majoris...so they have found something even bigger than that?
Now that is pretty impressive for a star wow.

Canis Majoris still has the largest diameter, but not the largest mass.

That *was* the pistol star, now its this new one.

Just read an article on this discovery on the BBC Sci/Enviroment news pages. Really great read and some fantastic images over there.

Originally posted by Pockets

Newly discovered star is largest ever found

By earthlings!

Or not even by earthlings!

.

Originally posted by arcana_imperii
I remember seeing something about a star called VY Canis Majoris...so they have found something even bigger than that?
Now that is pretty impressive for a star wow.

No, R136a1 is NOT the largest star, it's not even very large, it's very massive. The OP needs to correct the title of the thread, the title is wrong.

thedarklingthrush, please change "largest" to "most massive", those are NOT the same thing.

www.cleveland.com...

While other stars can be larger, notably the swollen crimson-colored ones known as red giants, they weigh far less.

Still, the mass of R136a1 and its ilk means they're tens of times bigger than the Earth's sun and they're brighter and hotter, too.

The red giants are larger, even if they aren't as massive:

Star Size Comparison HD (features VY Canis Majoris, best viewed in HD full screen)


So R136a1 is only tens of times bigger than our sun, whereas VY Canis Majoris is TWO THOUSAND times larger than our sun!!!! So not only is R136a1 NOT the largest star, it's still pretty tiny compared to VY Canis Majoris, if we compare the size and not the mass.

[edit on 21-7-2010 by Arbitrageur]

reply to post by SassyCat


I don't understand your response...please elaborate....don't you think humans found this???

As others have said, the thread starter is incorrect in saying this is the largest star found. It is the most massive, and VY Canis Majoris isn't even second to that. VY canis majoris is still the largest.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


I absolutely love that video, it has blown the mind of every person I've showed it to, but specially mine.

But even with an amazing comparison like that it's still a bit difficult to imagine an object that massive.

Originally posted by Slih_09
reply to post by Arbitrageur

 

I absolutely love that video, it has blown the mind of every person I've showed it to, but specially mine.

But even with an amazing comparison like that it's still a bit difficult to imagine an object that massive.

It's a work of art, and the artist said it was his 1st attempt at doing that type of video I think. There are many others like it but that's the best I've found.

And that's a nice touch at the end about taking 1100 years to go around the star one time, in a jet. And I thought overseas flights were too long

I'm curious how they determin the mass? Is mass the same as density?

While the new find may be around 300 solar masses, Canis Majoris remains larger dimensionally at only 30- 40 solar masses.
Here are some neat videos for comparison that leaves one saying .






It's not really a matter of how large the universe is. It's a matter of how insignificant we are.

[edit on 6/8/10 by Intelearthling]