Scale Comparison
VY Canis Majoris's visible extent is about 1.9 times Betelgeuse's.
VY Canis Majoris’s quoted visible extent is about 1.9 times Betelgeuse’s approximate photospheric diameter.
Neither star has a solid surface, and both lose material into complex surroundings. Wavelength, pulsation and the chosen photospheric definition affect each quoted diameter.
Objects
Betelgeuse is a red supergiant nearing the end of its stellar life. Its dramatic dimming in 2019 and 2020 turned out to be caused by a dusty veil ejected from the star, giving astronomers a rare direct look at how giant stars shed material into space.
VY Canis Majoris is an extreme red hypergiant wrapped in a dense, asymmetric cloud of its own ejecta. Much of its light reaches us in the infrared after being absorbed and re-emitted by that dust.
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.