![]() ![]() Fortunately, further observation may narrow the gap between the upper and lower limits. This is why we tend to see a range of sizes. It's extremely difficult to work out the mass or radius of a star, especially single stars at a great distance. ![]() There seems to be a number of different answers to the question of which star is the largest. There are supergiants bigger than Betelgeuse, and there are also some even more massive known as hypergiants. With a radius of 950-1200 times that of the Sun, it would probably reach beyond the orbit of Jupiter if it were in the Sun's place. Betelgeuse isn't hotter than Rigel, but it's much bigger. Rigel, the giant's left foot, is a blue supergiant and Betelgeuse, the right shoulder, is a red supergiant.Ĭompared to the Sun, Rigel is almost eighty times wider, over twenty times as massive, and 120,000 times more luminous. They will be supergiants, and Orion has two of them. The larger, hotter stars won't become mere giants when they leave the main sequence. It's an important navigation star, and has been prominent in the star lore of many cultures throughout history. Earth will be made uninhabitable and eventually swallowed up, along with Mercury, Venus and Mars.Īrcturus in the constellation Boötes is a well-known red giant, one of the brightest stars in the sky. In the very distant future the Sun will swell into a red giant. The star then expands due to increased outward radiation pressure. When a star has used up its hydrogen fuel and is burning heavier elements, it produces more heat. Main sequence stars were called dwarfs because when they left the main sequence they became giants. Nonetheless it's considered a dwarf star – a blue dwarf – because it's still on the main sequence. Its mass is forty times that of the Sun and it has eight times the Sun's radius. The four brightest stars of the Trapezium star cluster form a trapezium shape, and the brightest of those is Theta 1 Orionis C. There's a good example of such a star in the Orion Nebula. But the largest and hottest ones are much bigger and brighter than the Sun. The main sequence includes all of the stars, such as the Sun, whose nuclear fuel is hydrogen. Here's a short tour of some of the stars that dwarf the Sun, including some that have astonished astronomers. If we could cut the Sun in half and line up a hundred Earths across it, they wouldn't reach from edge to edge.Īlthough it's big to us, the Sun is classified as a dwarf star. About three-quarters of the stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs, and our Sun is bigger than all of them. Even the smallest red dwarf is ten times the width of the Earth. All stars are big compared to our Earthly experience. ![]()
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