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Massive Stars and their approximate Size

Astronomers have found massive stars in the early universe, primarily located in distant galaxies that formed shortly after the Big Bang. These regions are often studied through advanced telescopes capable of observing very distant light, such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. In terms of size, these monster stars can have diameters ranging from about 100 to over 300 times that of our Sun. The Sun’s diameter is approximately 1.4 million kilometers (about 864,000 miles), so these massive stars could be approximately 140 million to over 420 million kilometers (about 87 million to 261 million miles) in diameter.

Light echos in the Eta Carinae Nebula

The young star Eta Carinae shines prominently in the skies of the southern hemisphere. Although located relatively far away from Earth (about seven thousand light-years away, as compared with the average distance of naked-eye stars of about a thousand light-years), it can be seen easily by people in the southern hemisphere because it is fantastically bright—about five million times more luminous than our Sun. Astronomers have suggested one reason it is so bright is because it is very massive – perhaps as much as 200 times more massive than our Sun, making it one of the most massive stars known. (Massive stars consume their hydrogen much more quickly than Sun-like stars and are hotter and brighter.)

from Astronomy News - Space News, Exploration News, Earth Science News, Earth Science https://ift.tt/2yMEkjl

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