I have always thought that Betelgeuse was the largest visible star. Is this wrong?

Question

I was looking at star diameters and noticed that Antares was larger than Betelgeuse! I thought Betelgeuse was one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye! Is Antares the largest visible star?

Answer 1

Antares is bigger in volume than Betelgeuse.

If you want to have scale comparison of the planets and stars, visit website rense.com and look for the page " The Size of our World".

Answer 2

i think it is

Answer 3

You may be right in a way, but I think the sun is the largest visible star. You can see the sun, but it is not advisable.

Answer 4

"I was looking at star diameters and noticed that Antares was larger than Betelgeuse!"  

True.

"I thought Betelgeuse was one of the largest stars visible to the naked eye!"

That statement is still true.  It is "one" of the largest stars.  In fact, Betelgeuse was the first star (other than the Sun, of course) to have its apparent diameter measured directly.

Is Antares the largest visible star?

The largest stars -- in absolute size, not apparent size -- would be a relatively new (proposed) class: the hypergiants.

The star called VY CMa (in the constellation of the hunting dog) could be as big as 2100 times the diameter of the Sun.

Antares is 700 times; Betelgeuse is "only" 630 times (but it is much closer).  The size of VY CMa has not yet been confirmed, nor accepted by all astronomers.

Answer 5

betelgeuse is the largest visible to the naked eye, yes.. i dont know about antares, maybe that is the largest that you can see from earth, but need a telescope?

Answer 6

YOU MAY BE RIGHT

Answer 7

http://www.rense.com/general72/size.htm

Antares, in Scorpius, is larger than Betelgeuse, in Orion.

Answer 8

Betelgeuse has the third largest angular diameter when viewed from Earth, after our own Sun and R Doradus.

Antares is larger in diameter but it's distance from earth will make it appear smaller.

Answer 9

The Pistol Star is one of the most luminous known stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Early reports suggested that it might be the most extreme known star, producing almost 10 million times as much power as the Sun. Later studies, however, have reduced this number to roughly 1.7 million, making it one-third as luminous as the binary star system Eta Carinae. The Pistol Star radiates about as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in a year. Objects in this class have 80 to 150 times the mass of the Sun and "lifetimes" of about 3 million years. Unlike ordinary stars, they are strongly affected by outward pressure of the light that they emit.

This object owes its name to the shape of the Pistol Nebula which it illuminates. It is located near the center of our Galaxy, approximately 25,000 light years from Earth in the direction of Sagittarius. The Pistol Star would be visible to the naked eye as a fourth magnitude star, if it were not for the interstellar dust clouds hiding it from view; instead it was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in the early 1990s using infrared wavelengths that penetrate the dust. The Pistol Star is thought to have ejected almost 10 solar masses of material in giant outbursts perhaps 4000 to 6000 years ago. Its stellar wind is 10 billion times stronger than the Sun's. Its exact age and future cannot be determined for certain, but it is expected to end in a brilliant supernova or hypernova in 1 to 3 million years. Some astronomers conjecture that its large mass may be related to its location near the galactic center, since the star formation process there may favor massive objects.

This star is thought to be 200 times bigger than Betelgeuse one thing is for sure dont go if you dont like heat!!

from

prof b.t