The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System and the source of almost all the energy reaching its planets. It fuses about 600 million metric tons of hydrogen each second, and energy released in the core takes on the order of 100,000 years to work its way out to the visible surface.
Scale Comparison
Sun vs VY Canis Majoris
Explore the scaleVY Canis Majoris's visible extent is about 1,400 times the Sun's.
VY Canis Majoris has a quoted diameter about 1,400 times the Sun’s, but its extended atmosphere has no sharp edge.
The star is losing material into an asymmetric dusty nebula. Its apparent diameter depends on wavelength and on where the photosphere is defined, so the ratio should be read as an estimate.
Objects
Object details and sources
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.