VY Canis Majoris

massive star · red supergiant · extreme stellar object · Milky Way

Truly Colossal. VY Canis Majoris is one of the largest known stars in the entire galaxy. If you could stand on its surface, you would be standing on a star so wide that it would take light about 17 hours to travel across it.

Glowing Red Giant. It's a red supergiant, which means it's an aging, dying star that has swollen to an enormous size and turned a deep red color. Red supergiants are some of the most extreme and dramatic stars in the universe.

Super Bright Beacon. VY Canis Majoris shines with the brightness of about 400,000 suns, making it one of the most luminous stars we know about. That's nearly impossible to imagine.

Found Nearby. Even though it's incredibly distant, VY Canis Majoris is relatively close to Earth in cosmic terms, sitting about 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. We can still study it with telescopes.

Pulsing and Changing. This star is a variable star, meaning its brightness changes over time as it pulses and wobbles. Red supergiants are naturally unstable objects that are constantly shifting and changing.