Mind Blown

Some stars in our galaxy are thousands of times bigger than our Sun.

Our Sun may appear to be the biggest thing in the sky, but that's only because of how close it is to us. This is why it looks so much larger and brighter than all the other stars we can see. But that yellow dwarf is pulling a bit of a fast one on us.

Don't be fooled by how tiny those other dots of light may look. They're actually enormous balls of burning gas, all of which are many times greater and brighter than our own Sun. Our Sun could be classified as an average-sized star. Although some stars are smaller, some are most definitely bigger. Heaps bigger.

The largest we've detected so far is VY Canis Majoris, which is located 3900 light years from Earth. Its radius is roughly 2000 times that of the Sun. It would take a passenger jet 1100 years to fly round it once! (That's around it, not to it.)

VY Canis Majoris is what's known as a red hypergiant. These are classified by their enormous mass and luminosity. They burn fuel very quickly, so they only last a few million years, which in cosmic terms isn't long at all. By way of comparison, the Sun will generate nuclear fusion for eight billion years!

We expect VY Canis Majoris to die and go supernova within the next 100,000 years. When it does, it will explode and seed the universe with heavy elements essential for life on Earth, at the same time forming a black hole.

Despite its mind-blowing size, from Earth VY Canis Majoris looks like nothing but the merest speck buried among the billions of other stars in the Milky Way. Beyond that lie hundreds of billions more galaxies, and some may have stars that are even bigger still.