UY Scuti is a red supergiant (RSG) or red hypergiant star. It is a pulsating variable star in the constellation Scutum and one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is also one of the most luminous and well-known of its kind.[1][2]

The bright star in the centre of the picture is UY Scuti.

The star has an estimated average median radius of 1,708 times that of the Sun, or a diameter of 2.4 trillion m (1.5 billion mi; 15.9 AU); thus a volume 5 billion times that of the Sun.

It is about 2.9 kiloparsecs (9,500 light years) from Earth, so it is one of the nearest known hypergiants.[3] If placed at the center of the Solar system, its photosphere would engulf the orbit of Jupiter. The radius of this star is 1,189,348,720 km, It is not larger than the orbit of Saturn.

References change

  1. International Variable Star Index. "Detail for UY Sct". [1]
  2. Arroyo-Torres B. et al 2013. The atmospheric structure and fundamental parameters of the red supergiants AH Scorpii, UY Scuti, and KW Sagittarii. Astronomy & Astrophysics 554: A76. [2]
  3. Jura M. & Kleinmann S.G. 1990. Mass-losing M supergiants in the solar neighborhood. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 73: 769. [3]