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sun/biggest star

Last post 03-07-2006 6:52 AM by Terry Kucera. 1 replies.
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  • 03-06-2006 5:46 PM

    sun/biggest star

    From, Lauri B,

    Our sun is a medium-sized star? I heard that a star named pistol is the biggest known, how big, where is it?
  • 03-07-2006 6:52 AM In reply to

    • Terry Kucera
    • Top 10 Contributor
    • Joined on 02-27-2005
    • NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA
    • Posts 165

    Re: sun/biggest star

    Hi Lauri,

     You could say the sun is medium sized. This is because there are plenty of stars both larger and smaller than the sun. However, actually there are more stars smaller than the sun than there are larger. This is because there are many more small stars than large ones. Smaller stars are much longer lived than larger ones.

    There are pictures and information about the Pistol Star here:
    http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971008.html
    http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/pistol.htm
    It is thought to be 100 times more massive than the sun and is in the constellation Sagittarius, the archer.

    Whether that makes it the biggest star depends on how you define "big". Is it mass (how "heavy" it is)? Volume?

    Last year astronomers reported finding the largest stars in volume,
    KW Sagitarii (9,800 light-years away), V354 Cephei (9,000 light-years away), and KY Cygni (5,200 light-years away). These all have radii about 1500 times that of the sun (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4164365.stm)
    You can tell from their names that these stars are in the constellations Sagittarius, Cephius (the whale), and Cygnus (the swan).
    These stars are relatively low density (fluffy), though, so they are not as massive as the pistol star.

    Terry
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