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10th place - AH Scorpio
The tenth line of the largest stars in our Universe is occupied by a red supergiant, located in the constellation Scorpio. The equatorial radius of this star is 1287 - 1535 radius of our sun. It is located approximately 12,000 light years from Earth.
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9th place - KY Lebedya
The ninth place is occupied by a star located in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 5 thousand light years from Earth. The equatorial radius of this star is 1420 solar radii. However, its mass exceeds the mass of the Sun by only 25 times. Shines KY Cygnus about a million times brighter than the sun.
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8th place - VV Cepheus A
VV Cephei is an eclipsing Algol-type binary star in the constellation Cepheus, about 5,000 light-years from Earth. It is the second largest star in the Milky Way Galaxy (after VY Canis Major). The equatorial radius of this star is 1050 - 1900 solar radii.
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7th place - VY Big Dog
The largest star in our galaxy. The radius of the star lies in the range 1300 - 1540 radii of the sun. It would take light 8 hours to go around a star in a circle. Studies have shown that the star is unstable. Astronomers predict that VY Big Dog explode as a hypernova in the next 100,000 years. Theoretically, a hypernova explosion will cause gamma-ray bursts that could damage the contents of the local part of the universe, destroying any cellular life within a radius of several light years, however, the hypergiant is not located close enough to Earth to pose a threat (approximately 4 thousand light years).
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6th place - VX Sagittarius
Giant pulsating variable star. Its volume, as well as the temperature, change periodically. According to astronomers, the equatorial radius of this star is 1520 radii of the sun. The star got its name from the name of the constellation in which it is located. The manifestations of a star due to its pulsation resemble the biorhythms of the human heart.
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5th place - Westerland 1-26
The fifth line is occupied by a red supergiant, the radius of this star lies in the range 1520 - 1540 solar radii. It is located 11,500 light years from Earth. If Westerland 1-26 were in the center solar system, its photosphere would cover the orbit of Jupiter. For example, the typical length of the photosphere in depth for the Sun is 300 km.
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4th place - WOH G64
WOH G64 is a red supergiant located in the constellation Dorado. Located in the neighboring galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud. The distance to the solar system is approximately 163,000 light years. The radius of the star lies in the range 1540 - 1730 solar radii. The star will end its existence and become a supernova in a few thousand or tens of thousands of years.
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3rd place - RW Cepheus
Bronze goes to RW Cephei. The red supergiant is located at a distance of 2739 light years from us. The equatorial radius of this star is 1636 solar radii.
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2nd place - NML Lebedya
The second line of the largest stars in the Universe is occupied by a red hypergiant in the constellation Cygnus. The radius of the star is about 1650 solar radii. The distance to it is estimated at about 5300 light years. As part of the star, astronomers discovered substances such as water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, sulfur oxide.
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1st place - UY Shield
The largest star in our universe this moment is a hypergiant in the constellation Scutum. It is located at a distance of 9500 light years from the Sun. The equatorial radius of the star is 1708 radius of our sun. The luminosity of the star is approximately 120,000 times greater than the luminosity of the Sun in the visible part of the spectrum, the brightness would be much higher if there were not a large accumulation of gas and dust around the star.
More than the Sun 10-100 times and 10-1000 times brighter. Red giants are stars that in the later stages of evolution increase by 10-100 times, become less hot on the surface and slowly dump their gas shells into the surrounding space. In giant stars, after using all the hydrogen contained in them, the reactions of carbon synthesis from helium nuclei begin.
The largest stars continue to grow after the transformation of red giants and can become supergiants. Supergiants are 500 times larger than the Sun in diameter, and their absolute magnitudes vary from minus 5 to minus 10.
And this video will clearly demonstrate what was said above. Once again you are convinced of how diverse and amazing our Universe is!
Largest of famous stars- this is the supergiant Ov2 No. 12 in the constellation Cygnus, which is 810,000 times brighter than the Sun. The pressure at the center of supergiants is sufficient for the reactions of helium synthesis and the formation of iron atoms.
All iron of the Universe is formed in the central parts of supergiants. Supergiants shrink over time, explode and become supernovae.
Myriads of stars in the night sky have attracted the attention of people since ancient times. People gave stars special properties, they were credited with influencing earthly affairs - for example, the Egyptians believed that Sirius controls the floods of the Nile. But at the same time, the stars seemed small to people on Earth. celestial bodies- much, much smaller than the moon. Only with the advent of powerful telescopes did people realize that the stars are huge luminaries, similar to the Sun.
Red supergiants
However, even the nearest stars are so far from us that even in the best modern telescopes they are visible only as luminous points. Therefore, only at the beginning of the 20th century, scientists found a way to calculate the actual diameter of stars. The research results were astonishing - starry sky turned out to be inhabited by both dwarfs and giants. So, the diameter of the star Betelgeuse was measured in 1920 and turned out to be almost 350 times the diameter of the Sun. The surface of Betelgeuse is about 120 thousand times larger than its surface, and the volume is 40 million times the volume of our star! If Betelgeuse was in the place of the Sun, it would fill all the space far beyond the orbit of Mars.
But this celestial giant is far from the largest star in the vast expanses of space. For a long time, VY, which is located in the constellation Canis Major, was considered the largest star. The radius of this star is a billion kilometers, which is one and a half thousand times greater than the radius of the Sun. The following calculations give an idea of the size of this colossus: one revolution around the hypergiant star will take 1200 years, and then if you fly at a speed of 800 kilometers per hour. If we reduce the Earth to 1 centimeter in diameter and also proportionally reduce VY, then the size of the latter will be 2.2 kilometers. True, the mass of this star is “only” 40 times the mass of the Sun (this is due to the fact that the density of supergiant stars is very low). But on the other hand, VY shines 500 thousand times stronger than our heavenly body.
Star life
Betelgeuse and VY are red supergiants. As you know, stars are formed from cosmic accumulations of hydrogen. When such a cloud is sufficiently dense, gravitational forces begin to act, causing compression and heating of the gas. Upon reaching a certain limit, thermonuclear reactions begin in the heated and compressed center of the cloud - this means that the star has ignited. In a flaring star, hydrogen turns into helium for millions and even billions of years. If the star is large enough, there comes a moment when carbon and oxygen are included in thermonuclear reactions - the star becomes a red giant or supergiant. The gas envelope of such a star grows to enormous size, spreading over millions of kilometers. Red supergiants usually end up life path supernova explosion. After all, the existence of a star is determined by the balance between the forces of gravity, tending to compress the star, and the pressure of radiation, "bursting" it from the inside. When the radiation is insufficient to compensate for the gravitational field of the star, a catastrophic collapse of the star occurs. Gravitational contraction causes an "explosion inward" - the process is accompanied by the release of a colossal amount of energy.
The star goes supernova and a short time begins to shine brighter than all the stars in the galaxy combined. Then the supernova explosion ends. The gas envelope of a dead star gives rise to a new nebula, and the degenerate core turns into an object of small size, but monstrous density (it can be a white dwarf, a neutron star, or even a black hole).
Alas, the supergiant Betelgeuse, a neighbor of the solar system close by cosmic standards (located about half a thousand light years away), has reached the final stage of its evolution and may explode very soon. And this cataclysm can be dangerous for the Earth. The radiation of a supernova during an explosion is directed unevenly - the maximum radiation is determined by the magnetic poles of the star. And if it turns out that one of the poles of Betelgeuse is directed exactly at the Earth, then after a supernova explosion, a deadly X-ray flux will hit our planet ...
Huge and bright
But red supergiants are far from the heaviest and brightest stars. Champions among the known stars today are blue supergiants. In contrast to the red ones, which live a long life, these are young and hot stars, millions of times greater than the Sun in their brightness and having a mass that exceeds the mass of the Sun by tens and hundreds of times. The surface of blue supergiants is rapidly decreasing due to compression, while the radiation of internal energy is constantly growing and increasing the temperature of the star. This class of stars includes brightest star well known to scientists. The discovery happened recently: in 2010, while studying the Large Magellanic Cloud, researchers discovered the star R136a1. This giant is 256 times the mass of our Sun!
This means R136a1 weighs 5×10 32 kg; or 500000000000000000000000000000 tons! This data was a revelation for scientists, because it was assumed that stars that exceed the mass of the Sun by more than 150 times do not exist. At the same time, R136a1 surpasses the Sun ten million times in its brightness! The star is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits our Milky Way. The distance from the Earth to the nebula is an unimaginable value of 160 thousand light years, so the gigantic star is visible with powerful telescopes. And if this amazing luminary were located in the place of one of the stars closest to the solar system, those radiance of R136a1 would exceed the radiance of the Sun.
However, it is possible that R136a1 will soon give way to the “champion title” to the mysterious double star R144, discovered in mid-April 2013. R144 is a single system of two stars revolving around each other in close orbits, with a total component mass of about 300 solar masses. In the near future, they may merge into a single object, which will turn out to be a larger star than the current record holder (who was born, most likely, in the same way).
The mysterious object LBV 1806-20 is also a double star, whose brightness is supposedly 12 million times the brightness of the Sun (more than that of R136a1). Hidden behind gas and dust, the monstrous luminary of the LBV class (bright blue variable) has a mass of 130-190 solar masses. This superstar radiates about the same amount of energy in 2-3 seconds as the Sun does in a year. The fact that LBV1806-20 and R144 are binary stars is not accidental. As studies show, three-quarters of blue supergiants have a closely spaced companion star, and about a third of them are on the way to merge and form one star (the remaining quarter of "single" blue supergiants is apparently the result of a past merger of stars). Therefore, such stars received the unspoken name "vampire stars" (the main star of the binary system "sucks" matter from the surface of its neighbor).
Incredibly heavy...
However, although blue supergiants are the brightest stars known to science, the question of the most heavy stars remains open. There is reason to believe that in space there are "cold" stars of such a mass that R136a1 will turn out to be a dwarf against their background. Astronomers are interested in Epsilon Aurigae - a star so cold that, despite its monstrous size, it is not visible even in the most powerful telescopes, since its weak radiation lies almost entirely in the infrared region. We know about the existence of this "hidden" luminary only because it has a bright companion, which it periodically outshines. Based on indirect data, scientists have suggested that the mysterious "eclipsing" object is a dark star - an infrared giant with a diameter of 4 billion kilometers. If this hypothesis is correct, then Epsilon Aurigae, being in the place of the Sun, would fill the entire space of the solar system up to the orbit of Uranus!
Meanwhile, it is impossible to say what sizes infrared supergiants can reach - after all, a star so cold that it emits almost exclusively in the infrared part of the spectrum is very difficult to detect. Undoubtedly, in the depths of space lurk dark stars much larger than Epsilon Aurigae - and one can only guess what maximum size (and maximum mass) they can reach.
Whatever the hypothesis is correct, there is no doubt that new champions among the stars will soon appear - after all, scientists do not get tired of exploring space and making new discoveries. Who knows what luminaries-leviathans are hidden in the boundless space?
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The desire of the warring parties to influence the enemy by means of propaganda, disinformation, intimidation and bribery is a constant companion of all wars in the history of mankind. During the Second World War, each person at the front had his own place. Yu.V. Basistov, now retired colonel, candidate historical sciences, fought with the enemy as part of the seventh department of the Leningrad Front and fought not with weapons - with a word.
Some passages of the Bible are confirmed historical documents and archaeological finds. But there are texts Holy Scripture, about which doubts arise: are they not just beautiful legends? Only Scientific research can answer this question. Sometimes, in order to answer it, you need to restore the era and its accompanying events bit by bit. The story about Joseph and his brothers also belongs to such mysterious texts.
Officially, the pseudonym Lenin appeared with Vladimir Ulyanov in 1901. After Vladimir Ilyich headed the revolutionary government, he began to sign documents like this: "Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin)".
Hermann Goering, the closest associate of Adolf Hitler and chief of the Luftwaffe, was a great lover and connoisseur of painting. The art collection at his castle Carinhall contained many paintings, mostly by established old masters. Few contemporary paintings in Goering's collection were painted in the same academic manner. Only avant-garde painting was not at all: surrealism, abstractionism and other “isms”, which by that time were already very popular. Perhaps Goering would not have refused such canvases, but he could not afford this. After all, the artist himself of the academic direction (see "Secrets of the XX century", No. 33 for 2012), did not like and did not approve of "isms". And since the Fuhrer often visited Karinhall, avant-garde paintings would be out of place there.
Each launch into the expanses of the Universe, and even more so the whole program, is a very expensive pleasure. It is clear that spacecraft- this is a matter of legitimate national pride for the country that created and sent it to the stars, an indicator of the technical, scientific and economic potential of the state. And, of course, the launch of the launch vehicle is accompanied by the dreams and aspirations of scientists, the hope that the flight will go well. After all, the tasks for which the heavenly messenger, dear in every sense, was created, should, if possible, be successfully fulfilled and even overfulfilled. But it turns out that there was a case in the history of cosmonautics when no one from a narrow circle of initiates especially counted on success.
According to Russian tradition, a holiday without a song is not a holiday! IN New Year both adults and children traditionally sing "A Christmas tree was born in the forest." But few people know about the author of this song.
According to psychologists, excitement (emotions associated with the anticipation of success) belongs to the natural feelings of a person. A similar state is characteristic of animals during the hunt. At such moments, due to the release of adrenaline into the blood, physical and mental activity but it's easy to lose control of yourself. In the Soviet Union, the state tried to tightly control gambling activities - although this did not always work out.
Astronomers have already compiled a classification of stars according to their luminosity. Stars that emit thousands of times more light than the Sun are called giant stars, and stars with even more powerful radiation are called supergiants. On the contrary, stars with low luminosity are called dwarf stars.
Among the stars visible with the naked eye and in small telescopes, the majority are giants and supergiants. This is due to the fact that only such stars are visible from great distances. In fact, in starry world There are many more dwarfs than giants. In most cases, these names also speak of size, that is, that giants are very large, and dwarfs are very small. So, the diameter of the star Betelgeuse is 350 times the diameter of the Sun. There are stars that are 1000-2000 times larger than the Sun in diameter, and several billion times larger in volume. But there are stars that are much smaller than the Sun. White dwarfs stand out among them. The first of them, according to the time of discovery, is the satellite of Sirius. It is smaller than the planets Uranus and Neptune, and some white dwarfs are smaller than the Earth and even Mars.
Astronomers were able to establish not only the actual size of many stars, but also their masses. It turned out that despite the huge difference in the sizes of stars, their masses do not differ so much from the mass of the Sun. Rarely there are stars with a mass of more than 5-10 times the mass of the Sun, as well as stars with a mass of less than 0.3-0.5 solar masses. This means that the average density of matter (mass divided by volume) in giant stars must be extremely low, while in white dwarf stars it must be unimaginably high. In other words, one cubic centimeter of a giant star contains negligible fractions of a gram of matter, and the same volume of a dwarf star contains tons and even tens of tons.
white dwarfs
After the "burnout" of thermonuclear fuel in a star, the mass of which is comparable to the mass of the Sun, in its central part (core) the density of matter becomes so high that the properties of the gas change dramatically. Such a gas is called degenerate, and the stars it consists of are called degenerate stars. After the formation of a degenerate nucleus, thermonuclear combustion continues in the source around it, which has the shape of a spherical layer. In this case, the star passes into the region of red giants on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. The shell of a red giant reaches colossal dimensions - hundreds of solar radii - and dissipates into space over a time of about 10-100 thousand years. The ejected shell is sometimes visible as a planetary nebula. The remaining hot core gradually cools and turns into a white dwarf, in which the forces of gravity are opposed by the pressure of the degenerate electron gas, thereby ensuring the stability of the star. With a mass near the Sun, the radius of a white dwarf is only a few thousand kilometers. The average density of matter in it often exceeds 109 kg/m3 (a ton per cubic centimeter!). Nuclear reactions inside the white dwarf do not go, and the glow occurs due to slow cooling. The main supply of thermal energy of a white dwarf is contained in the oscillatory motions of ions, which at temperatures below 15 thousand Kelvin form crystal lattice. Figuratively speaking, white dwarfs are hot giant crystals.
