VY Canis Majoris
One of the largest stars known
A red hypergiant so vast that if placed in our solar system, its surface would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It's shedding mass at a furious rate and will end in a supernova or hypernova.
Image: NASA / ESA / Hubble
Vital statistics
Type
Red Hypergiant
Distance
~3,820 light-years
Radius vs Sun
~1,420×
Mass vs Sun
~17×
Luminosity vs Sun
~270,000×
Did you know
Light would take 8.5 hours to circle its surface.
Fact 01
Losing mass 30 million times faster than the Sun.
Fact 02
Surrounded by a complex nebula of its own expelled gas.
Fact 03
Research & publications
Jump straight into peer-reviewed papers, preprints and authoritative references for VY Canis Majoris.
arXiv (preprints)
Open-access preprints in physics & astrophysics.
NASA ADS
The definitive bibliographic database for astronomy.
Google Scholar
Cross-publisher academic search.
Nature
Peer-reviewed articles in Nature & sister journals.
Wikipedia
Encyclopedic overview & onward references.
Tip: ask the Research AI for a curated reading list → /research
