The 10 biggest stars in the universe

The Universe is a beautiful place full of captivating galaxies, stars, planets, asteroids, and infinite other bodies. Stars probably hold the title for the most fascinating celestial objects there. From growing up with stories of how stars are actually angels to finally knowing that the Sun is a star as well. While the Universe is still a mystery to us, there is a lot we know. Here are the ten biggest stars in the Universe that are known to mankind till date.

1. Top 10 biggest stars in
the known Universe
Prepared by - Rohan Jagdale

2. V838 Monocerotis

3. ●Belonging to the constellation Monoceros, V838
Monocerotis is a red star that is 19,900 light-years away
from the Earth.
●The star was first noticed after a massive eruption in
2002. The reason for the eruption is still a mystery, but
astronomers still have their theories like the eruption
was the result of the merger of planets and a binary star
or stellar death processes.
●With the range of 380 to 1,970 solar radii, V838
Monocerotis is undoubtedly one of the biggest stars in
the Universe.

4. Betelgeuse

5. ●Betelgeuse, which you can see from October to march, is a part
of the Orion constellation.
●It is one of the most popular red supergiants that is around 640
lights years away from Earth.
●Its radius is roughly thousand times that of our Sun, ranging
between 950 and 1200 solar radii.
●Astronomers believe that Betelgeuse can become a supernova
at any given time.
●Apart from being one of the largest stars in the night sky, it is
also the tenth brightest star as well as the second brightest
star in Orion. It is also one of the biggest stars that is visible to
a naked eye from the Earth.

6. KW Sagittarii

7. ●KW Sagittarii or KW Sgr. is a red supergiant star with 0 Kelvin
temperature.
●Located in the Milky Way, on the boundary of the
constellation Sagittarius, it is still considered a part of the
constellation.
●Lying 7800 light-years away from Earth, it is 1480 times the
radius of the Sun.
●Unlike Betelgeuse, to watch the star, you need a telescope.
● It stretches out past the orbit of Jupiter if placed in the center
of the solar system.

8. VY Canis Majoris

9. ●The next in the list is VY Canis Majoris, which was the
biggest star in the galaxy just a few years ago.
●It is still one of the most massive and luminous red
hyper-giant stars with a radius of 1420 (plus-minus
120) solar radii known to us.
●The Earth is 3900 light-years away from VY Canis
Majoris. As the name suggests, it is also a part of the
Canis Major constellation.

10. V354 Cephei VX Sagittarii

11. ●V354 Cephei and VX Sagittarii are two different stars, their
exact solar radii of 1520 (estimated diameter) put them on
the same spot, making them two of the largest stars in the
Universe.
●V354 Cephei is a red hyper-giant star that is roughly 9000
light-years away and belongs to the Cepheus constellation.
●VX Sagittarii is also a red hyper-giant star but is closer to the
earth with a distance of 1076 light-years between them.

12. HD 143183

13. ●After V354 Cephei and VX Sagittarii comes HD
143183. It is a red supergiant (or hypergiant)
star, belonging to the constellation Norma.
●With a radius between 1,480 and 1,830 solar
radii, it is definitely one of the largest stars in
our galaxy. It lies just on the outskirts of the
constellation and is 6523 light-years away from
the planet.

14. Westerlund 1-26

15. The next biggest star in the Universe is the red
hypergiant or supergiant Westerlund 1-26 located
around 11,500 light-years away from the planet
Earth.
With its radius ranging from 1,530-2,550 solar radii, it
can probably be the biggest star in the Universe if
the latter end of the spectrum is proximate to reality.

16. RW Cephei

17. ●The third-largest star in the Universe belongs to the
constellation Cepheus in the northern hemisphere
sky.
●An orange hypergiant with the solar radii of 1535,
RW Cephei is 11,400 lights years away from Earth’s
surface.
●If you replace the Sun with this star in the solar
system, it would stretch even beyond Jupiter’s
orbit.

18. WOH G64

19. With solar radii of 1,540-1,730, WOH G64 is the
second-largest star in the Universe, located in a
satellite galaxy of the Milky Way – Large Magellanic
Cloud.

20. ●It is a red supergiant star, 1,63,000 light-years
away from the Earth.
●Astronomers believe that it was even larger in
2004 with roughly an estimate of 3000 solar
radii.
●As a result of torus-shaped clouds of dust that
obscures the light of the star, its brightness
fluctuates over time.

21. UY Scuti

22. UY Scuti has been the largest star in
the Universe

23. ●It is a hypergiant with a radius 1700 times more than the
Sun.
●It was first detected it 1860 by German astronomers who
names it BD -12 5055.
●It is about 9500 light-years away from the Earth and lies
near the core of the Milky Way.
●To really grasp how big UY Scuti is, here is an example for
you. If Sun is a ball with a diameter of 8 inches, UY Scuti
would be a ball with a diameter of 7,92,00,00,000 inches or
20,1168 kilometers.

25. Thank you for Watching