Since Bigger is Better: Meet UY Scuti

If you ever thought the Sun was big, well think again!
I'm not saying it's not big, yet compared to our friend, UY Scuti, well let's say it wouldn't pick a fight with UY Scuti.

UY Scuti Observed through Rutherford Observatory - 2011
surrounded by a dense starfield

What is UY Scuti?

UY Scuti is a star (which is why I was comparing it to the sun), but more accurately it is what we call a Red Supergiant. This terminology refers to stars which are the largest in the universe in terms of volume.
It also belongs to the category of Variable Stars, since its brightness varies when observed from Earth.

UY Scuti was first discovered back in 1860 at Bonn Observatory by German astronomers. Back then, it was called BD -12 5055, but then the name was adjusted to reflect the proper variable star nomenclature whereby UY refers to the 38th variable star in its constellation, and Scuti due to belonging to the Scutum constellation.
It is located at approximately 9,500 light years away from us.

It was actually confirmed to be the largest back in 2012, after measurements were conducted by Chile's "Very Large Telescope" (yes that is its actual name, and no they couldn't come up with a better name lol) and hence beating Betelgeuse and Antares stars to the title.
Say hi to UY Scuti below:

UY Scuti close up image by Hubble Telescope - 2015

How big is UY Scuti?

• Let's talk numbers first. UY Scuti's radius stands at 1,708 ± 192 R_☉, which basically means its radius is that of the Sun's x 1,708 !
• Okay, maybe that did not process yet. Let's try with volume. Comparing to the Sun's volume, UY Scuti's volume is actually estimated at nearly 5 billions Suns! yes you read that right, that's

5,000,000,000 x of our Sun in Volume

• Forget about numbers, have a look at the picture below comparing The Sun' size to UY Scuti - you can barely see the sun at the top image, while becoming slightly visible after 7x zoom. See Image below
  

  
  Sun v/s UY Scuti in size

• Also comparing it against other stars, you can clearly see the difference
  

  
  
  Well-know stars with sizes and colors -
  you can see Betelegeuse and Antares here too
  

• Last analogy we will give you, is that if UY Scuti was placed instead of our sun at the center of our Solar system, its volume alone would at least swallow up to Jupiter's orbit, if not up to Saturn. For a demonstration of this (along with how our solar system would perish as well lol), check the simulation below
  

Does UY Scuti have the biggest Mass too?

While the biggest in size, yet it is not the one with the biggest mass. Its mass is not accurately measured, due to the absence of any accompanying stars against which it can be compared (gravitational effect), yet based on evolutionary models for star stages, its initial mass would be expected to be around 25 M_☉, meaning 25 x Mass of our Sun, and at current stage would have lost more than have of that mass, so estimates put it in the range of 7-10 M_☉. This falls way short than R136a1, the star with the highest mass know to us, with a mass of whooping 315 M_☉!

Hope you enjoyed meeting UY Scuti, and i'm sure happy he is NOT at the center of our system, otherwise I wouldn't be writing those words now, well, none of us would lol

@mcfarhat

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References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UY_Scuti
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_supergiant_star
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_star
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R136a1

Photo Credits:

• Image 1
• Image 2
• Image 3 by Philip Park via Jillian Scudder
• Image 4

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