New Star Discovered!

Recently a new star has been discovered.  The HR 5171 is a yellow hypergiant 13000 times larger than our sun, and is considered as one of the largest stars found, and probably the largest one in the Milky Way. Also, scientists have found that HR 5171 is a part of a binary and its partner star is “ so close that they touch and the whole system resembles a gigantic peanut” as said by Côte d’Azur Observatory’s Olivier Chesneau.   

A hypergiant is basically a supergiant – the largest stars that ranges between 10-70 solar masses [1 solar mass =1.9891 × 10³⁰ kilograms = simply the mass of the sun]. They are also tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands brighter than the sun. Though, some will be hundreds of times as massive with very high levels of luminosity which makes them a hypergiant.

Other supergiants found in our galaxy are the KW Sagitarii and KY Cygnii among others.

Blogpost by: Glessa Francesca Garibay

References:

Cain, F. (n.d.). Supergiant Star. Universe Today RSS. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.universetoday.com/25325/supergiant-star/

HR 5171A: Astronomers Discover Largest Yellow Hypergiant Star. (n.d.). Breaking Science News SciNewscom. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-hr5171a-largest-yellow-hypergiant-star-01802.html

Millis, J. P. (n.d.). Hypergiant Stars. About.com Space / Astronomy. Retrieved March 16, 2014, from http://space.about.com/od/stars/a/Hypergiant-Stars.htm

O'neill, I. (n.d.). Monster Rare Yellow Hypergiant Star Discovered. DNews. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://news.discovery.com/space/astronomy/monster-rare-yellow-hypergiant-star-discovered-140312.htm

Star Classification - Zoom Astronomy. (n.d.). Star Classification - Zoom Astronomy. Retrieved March 15, 2014, from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/stars/startypes.shtml