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Below are lists of the largest stars currently known, ordered by radius and separated into categories by galaxy. The unit of measurement used is the radius of the Sun (approximately 695,700 km; 432,300 mi). [ 1 ] The Sun, the orbit of Earth, Jupiter, and Neptune, compared to four stars.
A few notable large stars with masses less than 60 M☉ are shown in the table below for the purpose of comparison, ending with the Sun, which is very close, but would otherwise be too small to be included in the list. At present, all the listed stars are naked-eye visible and relatively nearby. Star name. Location.
[159] [160] When the metallicity is very low, the minimum star size seems to be about 8.3% of the solar mass, or about 87 M J. [160] [161] Smaller bodies called brown dwarfs, occupy a poorly defined grey area between stars and gas giants. [159] [160] The combination of the radius and the mass of a star determines its surface gravity.
The modern classification system is known as the Morgan–Keenan (MK) classification. Each star is assigned a spectral class (from the older Harvard spectral classification, which did not include luminosity [ 1 ]) and a luminosity class using Roman numerals as explained below, forming the star's spectral type. Other modern stellar ...
Giant star. A giant star has a substantially larger radius and luminosity than a main-sequence (or dwarf) star of the same surface temperature. [1] They lie above the main sequence (luminosity class V in the Yerkes spectral classification) on the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram and correspond to luminosity classes II and III. [2]
Betelgeuse is the brightest near-infrared source in the sky with a J band magnitude of −2.99; [95] only about 13% of the star's radiant energy is emitted as visible light. If human eyes were sensitive to radiation at all wavelengths, Betelgeuse would appear as the brightest star in the night sky.
Representative lifetimes of stars as a function of their masses The change in size with time of a Sun-like star Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right Chart of stellar evolution
Rigel is an intrinsic variable star with an apparent magnitude ranging from 0.05 to 0.18. [5] It is typically the seventh-brightest star in the celestial sphere, excluding the Sun, although occasionally fainter than Betelgeuse. [31] Rigel appears slightly blue-white and has a B-V color index of −0.06. [32]