| Mar 10, 2017 | |
Hubble hones in on a hypergiant's home |
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| (Nanowerk News) This beautiful Hubble image reveals a young super star cluster known as Westerlund 1, only 15,000 light-years away in our Milky Way neighborhood, yet home to one of the largest stars ever discovered. | |
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| This beautiful Hubble image reveals a young super star cluster known as Westerlund 1, only 15,000 light-years away in our Milky Way neighborhood, yet home to one of the largest stars ever discovered. (Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA) (click on image to enlarge) | |
| Stars are classified according to their spectral type, surface temperature, and luminosity. | |
| While studying and classifying the cluster's constituent stars, astronomers discovered that Westerlund 1 is home to an enormous star. Originally named Westerlund 1-26, this monster star is a red supergiant (although sometimes classified as a hypergiant) with a radius over 1,500 times that of our sun. | |
| If Westerlund 1-26 were placed where our sun is in our solar system, it would extend out beyond the orbit of Jupiter. | |
| Most of Westerlund 1's stars are thought to have formed in the same burst of activity, meaning that they have similar ages and compositions. | |
| The cluster is relatively young in astronomical terms --at around three million years old it is a baby compared to our own sun, which is some 4.6 billion years old. |
| Source: NASA | |
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