What is special about VY Canis Majoris?

A very large and luminous star, VY CMa is among the most extreme stars in the Milky Way and has an effective temperature below 4,000 K (3,730 °C; 6,740 °F).

What happens if VY Canis Majoris exploded?

VY Canis Major is predicted to explode as a supernova within the next 100,000 years. If it does explode, we would see it brighten considerably even though it is quite some distance away from us. Its distance (3,900 light-years) is greater than that of Betelgeuse, which is only about 640 light-years away.

How long does VY Canis Majoris have left?

It has a surface temperature of 3,000 kelvin, which is relatively cool for a star. VY Canis Majoris is at the end of its life. It lived a short life in the main sequence phase of its life, and then ballooned up as a red hypergiant. It will remain in this phase for a few hundred thousand years.

How was VY Canis Majoris formed?

In the case of VY Canis Majoris, it was formed around 10 million years ago when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust together. VY Canis Majoris is a very young star, and it is believed that it evolved from an O9 main-sequence star which initially had between 5 – 20 solar radii.

Is Canis Major in the Milky Way?

The Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy is classified as an irregular galaxy and is now thought to be the closest neighboring galaxy to the Earth’s location in the Milky Way, being located about 25,000 light-years (7.7 kiloparsecs) away from the Solar System and 42,000 ly (13 kpc) from the Galactic Center. …

Can you see VY Canis Majoris from Earth?

Placed in our solar system, VY Canis Majoris’ surface would extend out past the orbit of Saturn. Light would take more than 8.5 hours to travel around the star’s circumference, compared to 14.5 seconds for the sun. Unfortunately, this amazing star is not visible to skywatchers here on Earth.

Is VY Canis Majoris bigger than Uy scuti?

UY Scuti is the largest. The problem starts because we don’t know the exact radius of both stars due to margin of error in size determination. People often confused about the winner because the minimum radius of UY Scuti is smaller than the maximum radius of VY Canis Majoris making latter the largest.

How old is Canis Major?

around 2.2 billion years old
Around 15 light-years in diameter, it is located 3700 light-years away from Earth, and has been dated to around 2.2 billion years old. NGC 2362 is a small, compact open cluster, 5200 light-years from Earth. It contains about 60 stars, of which Tau Canis Majoris is the brightest member.

How heavy is VY Canis Majoris?

3.381 × 10^31 kg (17 M☉)
VY Canis Majoris/Mass

How many Earths can fit inside VY Canis Majoris?

We need to know that the diameter of VY Canis Majoris is 155000 times that of our Earth. Let us assume that nnumbers of Earth can be fitted into VY Canis Majoris. Therefore, we can conclude that 7.5477×1010Earths can be fitted into VY Canis Majoris.

How far is Canis Majoris from Earth?

25,000 light years
Canis Major Overdensity/Distance to Earth

What type of star is VY Canis Majoris?

VY Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant with a radius of around 1,500 times larger than the sun. Hypergiant stars such as VY Canis Majoris are extremely rare in our galaxy, in fact most stars in the Milky Way are smaller than the sun.

Is VY Canis Majoris A gaseous envelope?

VY Canis Majoris is surrounded by a gaseous envelope as it has begun to shed its mass. VY Canis Majoris is around 4,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Canis Major. It is one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

What is the size of VY Canis Majoris ejecta?

VY Canis Majoris ejecta shell. Image: Judy Schmidt The star’s properties indicate that it was an O-type star with an estimated mass between 15 and 35 times that of the Sun during its main sequence. The diameter of VY CMa, 13.2 astronomical units, corresponds to about 1,976,640,000 kilometres.

How far away is VY Canis Major from Earth?

VY Canis Majoris a.k.a. VY CMa is about 4,900 light years from the Earth. This value, however, is just a rough estimate because it is too far for parallax to be used.