
Friday, August 10, 2007
VY Canis Majoris
VY Canis Majoris (VY CMa) is a red hypergiant located in the constellation of Canis Major. This is the largest known star and one of the most luminous stars known.
Size comparison between the Sun and VY Canis Majoris. It is necessary to view the image in full size in order to see the sun.
Roberta M. Humphreys (2006) estimates the radius of VY CMa is between 1800 and 2100 solar radii. If our sun were replaced with such a star, its surface could extend to the orbit of Saturn. If we take its radius to be that higher figure of 2100 solar radii, it would take more than 8 hours for light to travel around its circumference. If it were possible for a human to walk on the surface of Canis Majoris, at 3 miles an hour for 8 hours a day, it would take him or her 650,000 years to walk the entire circumference (compared with 2 years 11 months to complete the same task on the Earth).
There are two controversial opinions of the property of VY CMa. In one opinion (such as Roberta M. Humphreys' study[1]), the star is a very large and very luminous red hypergiant. In another opinion (such as Massey, Levesque, & Plez's study[2]), the star is a normal red supergiant, with a radius around 600 solar radii. In this case, its surface would extend well past the orbit of Mars. This star is likely to undergo a hypernova stage by 3200. The distance from Earth to VY CMa is about 1.5 kiloparsecs (or 5,000 light-years).
Source : www.wikipedia.com
KB ` stepped on your garbage at
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By , at 2:44 pm
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By , at 9:47 am
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By , at 4:56 pm
miss 6 orchid already (-.-)
By , at 10:59 pm
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By , at 2:37 pm
halo every1, how yr life in sec sch?hope this blog will be here 4ever!1:P
By , at 7:07 pm
this blog looks abit dead yah.
since i'm out of wrps...i need to say something and i this is not a spam... i am in 6 orchid and i like a boy name...Tan Chin Yong....since primary 5 i've been the same class with him...lol...haha! so bored now...
By , at 6:26 pm