Key facts
- Category
- Stars
- Object class
- Red hypergiant star
- Mass
- ~17 solar masses
- Temperature
- ~3,500 K surface
- Scale fact
- 1.98 billion kmdiameter
- Estimated age
- ~8 million years
- Composition
- Hydrogen and helium
VY Canis Majoris
1.98 billion kmdiameter
Visual creditscaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
Details
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.
VY Canis Majoris is a red hypergiant surrounded by an asymmetric nebula of gas and dust expelled by the star. Resolved images show arcs, knots and clumps rather than a smooth wind, evidence that much of the mass loss occurred in separate episodes.
Dust absorbs and reradiates a large fraction of the star’s energy in infrared light. Its extended atmosphere also makes the roughly two-billion-kilometer diameter wavelength-dependent rather than a clean physical boundary.
Links
- Editorial guides
- Universe journey
- Solar neighborhood
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- VY Canis Majoris on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near VY Canis Majoris on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, VY Canis Majoris falls between Stephenson 2 DFK 49 and Stephenson 2-18. The band uses nearby Stars records.
Shared physical scale
2.29billion km
Sources
References for VY Canis Majoris
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- VY Canis Majoris — Wikipedia
- Visual: scaleofspace.org / CC BY-NC 4.0
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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.