Betelgeuse size and scale context

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. Read its scale context, comparisons, and journey links on the canonical object page.

Spica AB-type giant star·10.4 million km

PolluxK-type orange giant star·12.5 million km

ArcturusK-type orange giant star·35 million km

AldebaranK-type red giant star·62.8 million km

RigelBlue supergiant star·103 million km

Eta Carinae ALuminous blue variable star·334 million km

BetelgeuseRed supergiant star·1.05 billion km

VY Canis MajorisRed hypergiant star·1.98 billion km

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Stars

Eta Carinae A

Eta Carinae A is the luminous blue variable primary in the Eta Carinae system, buried inside the Carina Nebula. Its dense wind makes the star’s surface hard to define, so this record uses an approximate visible stellar disk rather than a clean hydrostatic radius.

Scale fact334 million kmdiameter

Object class: Luminous blue variable star
Mass: ~100 solar masses
Host: Eta Carinae system
Estimated age: ~3 million years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium
Temperature: ~15,000–25,000 K surface

Stars

Betelgeuse

Scale fact1.05 billion kmdiameter

Object class: Red supergiant star
Mass: ~15–20 solar masses
Temperature: ~3,600 K surface
Estimated age: ~8–14 million years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium

Stars

VY Canis Majoris

VY Canis Majoris is an extreme red hypergiant wrapped in a dense, asymmetric cloud of its own ejecta. Its vast infrared glow and clumpy nebula show a star losing matter so violently that the surrounding outflow becomes part of the story.

Scale fact1.98 billion kmdiameter

Object class: Red hypergiant star
Mass: ~17 solar masses
Temperature: ~3,500 K surface
Estimated age: ~8 million years
Composition: Hydrogen and helium