VY Canis Majoris
Overview
Canis Major
Canis Major is one of the 88 modern constellations, and was included in the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy's 48 constellations. Its name is Latin for 'greater dog', and is commonly represented as one of the dogs following Orion the hunter...
, it is a red hypergiant
Hypergiant
A hypergiant is a star with a tremendous mass and luminosity, showing signs of a very high rate of mass loss.-Characteristics:...
, between 1800 and 2100 solar radii, 8.4–9.8 astronomical unit
Astronomical unit
An astronomical unit is a unit of length equal to about or approximately the mean Earth–Sun distance....
s in radius, about 3.0 billion km or 1.9 billion miles in diameter, and about 1.5 kiloparsecs
Parsec
The parsec is a unit of length used in astronomy. It is about 3.26 light-years, or just under 31 trillion kilometres ....
(4,900 light years, or ) distant from Earth.
Unanswered Questions
